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LIBRARY RE S. 



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J UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J 



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Bible Jewels 



BY TJKE 

Rev. RICHARl/ NEWTON, D.D. 

AUTHOR OF " RILLS FROM THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE," " SAFE COMPASS," 
" GREAT PILOT," " BIBLE BLESSINGS," ETC. 



o>0^o 






NEW YORK: 

ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 

No. 530 Broadway. 

1867. 



4 






. fin 



The LibK xy 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



3)3; 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 
ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 



In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for 
the Southern District of New York. 



(^ 



ROCKWELL & ROLLINS, 
8TEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS, 

122 Washington St., Boston. 



PREFACE. 



Did you ever see a casket of jewels ? Perhaps you 
are ready to ask, — what is a casket? It is a little 
box, made on purpose to keep jewels in. Suppose 
we have one here before us. We open it. Here is 
a diamond flashing and sparkling in its beauty, with 
little rainbows dancing round it. There is a pearl 
quietly shining in its silvery whiteness. Here is a 
ruby with its deep red color; an emerald with its 
bright sea-green ; a sapphire with its soft sky-blue ; a 
purple amethyst ; a yellow topaz, and an opal with its 
varying hues. They are all glittering in the light, 
though each shines with a color different from all the 
rest. How beautiful they look ! 

This book is intended to be like such a box. It is 
a casket filled with Bible jewels. The first we meet 
with is "the Pearl of great price." This represents 
Jesus. Then there is the diamond, which represents 
the true Christian. The ruby, with its flashing red, 
represents the love which real Christians have for 
their precious Saviour and all his people. The eme- 
rald, with its beautiful green, reminds us of the 
blessed hope of heaven which Jesus puts into the 
hearts of his people. The purple amethyst is the 
temperance jewel. The sky-blue sapphire reminds 
us of the faith which makes true Christians strong to 

in 



IV PREFACE. 

serve and strong to suffer. The topaz, with its golden 
yellow, stands for the true honesty of those who are 
always trying to please God; while the beautiful 
opal, in which all the colors of the other jewels blend 
together, represents prayer, which " brings every 
blessing from above." 

Natural jewels are so valuable that many of us can 
never afford to buy them. Nor is this necessary, for 
we can be happy without them. But these Bible 
jewels are a thousand times more valuable, and with- 
out them we cannot be happy. Yet, valuable as they 
are, the poorest person who reads .this book, whether 
young or old, may become the owner of all the Bible 
jewels of which it speaks. And this is the reason why 
this book was written. The hope and prayer of the 
writer is that every one who reads these pages may 
try to get all these precious Bible jewels. Try first 
to get Jesus, — the Pearl of great price. And when 
he is yours, ask him to give you all the other jewels 
here described. They belong to Jesus. He has them 
to give away. He will give them to all who earnestly 
ask for them. Ask him to give them to you. Then 
how rich and happy, how good and useful, you will 
be! And when Jesus shall come to "make up his 
jewels" you will be gathered with them, and will 
shine in beauty forever among the bright and glori- 
ous things of his heavenly kingdom. 

The graphic illustrations accompanying this volume 
were kindly furnished by our gifted young artist, Mr. 
A. G. Heaton, to whom the author tenders his most 
cordial thanks. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. — My Jewels, 9 

II. — The Pearl, 41 

III. — The Diamond, 71 

IV. — Rubies, 99 

V. — The Amethyst, • . 125 

VI. — The Amethyst, 151 

VII. — The Emerald, 177 

VIII. —The Opal, 205 

IX. — The Sapphire, ...... 233 

X. — The Topaz, 261 

XI. — The Agate, 287 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



RILLS FROM THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 

THE BEST THINGS. 

THE. KING'S HIGHWAY. 

THE GIANTS, AND HOW TO FIGHT THEM. 

THE SAFE COMPASS. 

BIBLE BLESSINGS. 

THE GREAT PILOT. 

THE JEWISH TABERNACLE. 

6 



I. 

"My jewels."— Malachi iii. 17. 



Bible Jewels. 



o>*o 



This is what God calls his people. He 
is speaking of all true Christians — of all 
persons who really learn to love and serve 
Jesus — when he uses this language. It is 
wonderful to notice how many different kinds 
of things God compares his people to in the 
Bible. In one place they are compared to 
trees, as the cedar (Ps. xcii. 12), or the palm- 
tree (Ps. xcii. 12) . In another place they are 
compared to flowers, like the rose and the 
lily. (Canticles, or the Song of Solomon, 
ii. 1.) Again they are compared to the stars 
(Pan. xii. 3), and to the sun (Matt. xiii. 

9 



10 BIBLE JEWELS. 

43). In one place they are compared to the 
sparkling dew-drops, that stand so thick on 
the flowers of the garden, on a fine summer 
morning, and make the whole garden look so 
fresh and beautiful. (Micah v. 7.) In other 
places they are compared to the light which 
the sun is pouring forth all the time, and 
which enables us to see the many wonderful 
things with which God has filled the world 
around us. (Matt. v. 14.) They are com- 
pared to the dove, because it is harmless ; to 
the lamb, because it is gentle ; to the lion, 
because it is bold ; and to the eagle, because it 
is a noble bird that tries to get above the 
world, and to rise far away up toward the sun. 
But, in this passage from the prophet Malachi, 
God compares his people to jewels. He says, 
" They shall be mine in that day when I make 
up my jeivels" Jewels are considered to 
be the most valuable things that a person can 
have. Sometimes they are made of gold and 
silver, and sometimes of pearls, or diamonds, 
or other precious stones. Kings and queens, 
lords and ladies, and other great and ricji 



MY JEWELS. 11 

people put jewels on their fingers, round their 
necks, or in their bosoms, and wear them for 
ornaments. And just in the same way God 
says his people shall be to him for w a crown 
of glory and a diadem of beauty." (Isaiah 
lxii. 3.) What a blessed thing it will be to 
be one of the jewels in the crown that Jesus 
wears, or to lie in his bosom shining like a 
diamond ! And yet, if we really love and 
serve him, He tells us in this text that we 
shall be his jewels. 

There are a great many precious stones 
mentioned in the Bible. Each of these may 
be considered as representing some impor- 
tant part of Christian character or duty ; and 
it seems to me that if we take up these jewels 
they will furnish us with an interesting and 
instructive subject for a course of sermons. 
This subject, then, we may call — Bible Jewels. 

In our present text God's people are com- 
pared to jewels. This first sermon will lead 
us to consider some reasons why Christians 
are like jewels. I wish now to give you 
three reasons why they are so. 



12 BIBLE JEWELS. 

Iii the first place, Christians are like jewels, 
because jewels are very beautiful. 

God never made anything that looks more 
lovely than some jewels do. When you 
hold up a diamond, in the light of the sun, 
or even of a lamp, and move it about, it flashes 
and sparkles most beautifully. And if we 
had a number of them together, as they are 
sometimes seen in a monarch's crown, or a 
lady's head-dress, in a strong light they 
would glitter and shine so, that we could 
hardly bear to look at them. They would 
seem to have little rainbows dancing all about 
them. We should see all the colors of the 
rainbow glittering and sparkling there. But 
these beauties are not in the jewels so much 
as in the light which shines upon them. If 
it were not for the light, you would see nothing 
of the beauty. Suppose it were as dark as 
midnight here ; I might hold up ten thousand 
diamonds, if I had them, and yet there would 
be no beauty for you to see. Not a trace of 
brightness would sparkle in one of them. 
We sometimes read stories about dark caves, 



MY JEWELS. 13 

in which great jewels are put up, instead of 
lamps, for the purpose of lighting them up. 
But this is a mistake. Jewels have no beauty 
in themselves. They have no power of their 
own to shine. It is only when light, outside 
of themselves, is thrown upon them that their 
beauty can be seen. But when the bright 
beams of the sun shine upon them they ap- 
pear very beautiful. 

And just so it is with Christians, who are 
God's jewels. They are very beautiful. 
But this beauty is not their own. It does not 
belong to themselves. It all comes from 
Jesus. When they learn to know him, and 
love him, and serve him, they become like 
him, and this is what makes them beautiful. 
Jesus is called in the Bible "the Sun of 
righteousness." He gives light to his people, 
just as the sun gives light to the world. He 
shines on the souls of his people, and this 
makes them look beautiful as diamonds and 
other jewels do, when the sun is shining on 
them. And the stronger the light is that falls 
on a jewel the more beautiful it appears. If, 



14 BIBLE JEWELS. 

instead of the light of a lamp, j 7 ou hold a 
diamond in the beams of the sun, it will 
sparkle with a hundred times more beauty. 
And so the nearer we get to Jesus, the more 
we know of him and love him, the more 
beautiful we shall become. 

You remember what we read in the Bible 
about Moses. He went up to the top of 
Mount Sinai once, and he was there for forty 
days, seeing Jesus all the time, and talking 
with him. And, when he came down, his 
face was shining with so much brightness and 
beauty, that the people could not bear to look 
at him. The sight of his face dazzled their 
eyes, like looking at the sun. Moses had to 
put a veil over his face, and cover it up, be- 
fore the people could come near enough to 
talk with him. 

And, you remember, too, what we read in 
the New Testament about Jesus on the Mount 
of Transfiguration. His disciples looked at 
him, just as you and I have sometimes looked 
at, what is called, a dissolving view, in a 
magic-lantern . They saw a wonderful change 



MY JEWELS. 15 

come over him. The appearance of him, 
which they were accustomed to see, melted 
away, and another form, or appearance, 
gradually took its place. His face grew 
brighter and brighter, till it was shining 
with a light above the brightness of the sun. 
His clothing changed, too. It all turned 
white, and kept on growing more and more 
pure, till it was whiter than the spotless snow. 
And Jesus underwent this change, and put on 
this beautiful appearance, on purpose to show 
us what the beauty is which he intends to put 
on all his people. Yes, my dear young 
friends, if you and I are true Christians, we 
shall be made, at last, to look just as Jesus 
did when he was on that mountain. One of 
these days Jesus is going to come into our 
world again. He will come to gather his 
jewels together. This means that he will 
come to raise his people out of their graves, 
and take them to be forever with him in his 
heavenly kingdom. And, when Jesus comes 
to do this, he will appear just as his disciples 
saw him on the Mount of Transfiguration. 



16 BIBLE JEWELS. 

And all his people will be made like him 
then. They will all be wearing the same 
snow-white garments that Jesus wore on the 
mount. Their faces will all be shining 
brighter than the sun, as his did. Oh, how 
brightly God's jewels will sparkle then ! 
How beautiful they will appear ! We often 
see great beauty, now, in the flowers, the 
rainbow, the sky ; but it fades while we look 
at it, and very soon it is all gone. Even the 
beauty of the transfiguration did not last! 
But the beauty that Jesus will give to his 
people, when he comes again, will be lasting 
beauty. It will never fade. On the con- 
trary, it will grow brighter, and brighter 
forever. Jewels are very beautiful. This is 
one reason why God calls his people jewels. 

But jewels are very valuable ; and this 
is another reason why God calls his people 
jewels. 

It is because of their value that we call 
them precious stones. Very often a single 
jewel will be worth more than many a rich 
man's whole fortune. You remember the 



MY JEWELS. 17 

Bible speaks of a man ff finding one pearl, of 
great price, and then selling all that he had" 
in order to purchase that pearl. 

We read of a nobleman in England, some 
time ago, who had a suit of clothes made to 
wear on special occasions. It was what is 
called a court-dress. He only used to put 
it on when the king had great companies of 
the nobility at his palace. But there were so 
many jewels on that one suit of clothes that 
it was worth four hundred thousand dollars. 

A young friend of mine, now travelling in 
Europe, wrote home the other day that he 
saw, while visiting the royal gallery in the 
city of Dresden, a necklace of jewels that 
was said to be worth two millions of dollars. 
In the same place is a small casket of jewels 
valued at twenty millions of dollars. 

But to show you what very valuable things 
jewels are, let me tell you about some of the 
most celebrated diamonds in the world. 

One of these is called the Orloff diamond, 
or the Grand Kussian diamond. This is 
about as large as a walnut. It belongs to the 



18 BIBLE JEWELS* 

Emperor of Kussia. Its lustre is very fine, 
but it is a little defective in shape. It is 
valued at over half a million of dollars. 
There are two stories told about this diamond. 
One is that it used to belong to a Persian 
prince, who called it "the Moon of the 
Mountain." It is said that somebody mur- 
dered the prince, and then stole all his jewels, 
and among them this great diamond, which, 
after many changes, came into the hands of 
the Empress Catharine, of Russia, and has 
since been kept in that family. 

The other story is that this beautiful gem 
was once used as one of the eyes of an idol, 
in the temple of Brahma. I don't know what 
he had for his other eye. But certainly one 
of his eyes must have been much brighter, 
and more beautiful than the other. Well, 
there it was, for many a year, flashing and 
sparkling most splendidly. The fame of this 
wonderful bright-eyed god spread all over the 
country. A French soldier, in the garrison 
at Pondicherry, made up his mind to try and 
get it. He deserted from the army. He 



MY JEWELS. 19 

went to the priests of this temple, and pro- 
fessed his desire to become a convert to the 
worship of their god. He remained with 
them a long time, till he gained their confi- 
dence, and was appointed to some post of 
duty about the temple. Then he watched for 
an opportunity and got into the temple all 
alone one night, when he climbed up on the 
shoulders of the idol, gouged out his bright- 
jewelled eye, and went off with it. He 
escaped to Madras, and sold it to a sea-captain 
for fifty thousand francs. After passing 
through different hands, a Greek merchant 
finally sold it to the Empress Catharine. The 
price she paid the merchant for it was four 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars cash down, 
twenty thousand dollars a year as long as 
he lived, and also a title of nobility. She 
made him a lord, or a duke, or something of 
that kind. It is said to be worth a million of 
dollars. 

There is another great diamond, called the 
Austrian, or Grand Tuscan diamond. It has 
belonged to the family of the Emperor of 



20 BIBLE JEWELS. 

Austria for many generations. It is cut in 
the form of a rose. It has nine sides, each 
presenting a star with nine rays. But it has 
a kind of yellowish tint, which makes it less 
valuable than it would otherwise be. Yet 
that single jewel is supposed to be worth 
between seven and eight hundred thousand 
dollars. 

Another of the celebrated diamonds of the 
world is called the Pitt diamond, or the 
Regent. It is not the largest, but is said to 
be the most perfect and beautiful, diamond in 
Europe. When it was cut, or polished, it 
took two years' time to do it, and the work 
cost fifteen thousand dollars. The fragments 
broken off from it in cutting were worth 
many thousand dollars. It is called the 
Pitt diamond ; because, when first brought 
from the East Indies, it was bought by Mr. 
Thomas Pitt, the grandfather of the celebrated 
English statesman of that name. It is called 
the Regent diamond, because, when Mr. 
Pitt sold it, it was bought by the Duke of 
Orleans, who was then the Regent, or reign- 



MY JEWELS. 21 

ing Prince of France. When Napoleon I. 
was Emperor of France it belonged to him. 
He used to wear it on the hilt of his sword. 
Once he had to pawn it to raise money to pay 
his soldiers. Now. it is set in the crown of 
the Emperor of France, and sparkles beauti- 
fully there. When this diamond was sold the 
cost of the sale was twenty thousand dollars. 
This one jewel is worth a million of dollars. 
Another famous diamond is called " The 
Star of the South." This belongs to the 
King of Portugal. There is an interesting 
story connected with the finding of this 
precious gem. A good many years ago, you 
know, Brazil, in South America, which is now 
an independent government, used to belong 
to the King of Portugal. In those days three 
men had done something to offend the king. 
As a punishment they were banished to a 
place in the interior of Brazil. They were 
never to go home again to their families, but 
were to stay there till they died. The part 
of the country to which they were sent was 
very rich in gold and jewels. Every river 



22 BIBLE JEWELS. 

rolled over a bed of gold, and every valley 
was a sort of diamond mine. But they 
couldn't live on gold. And jewels wouldn't 
take the place of their families and friends ; 
and so the banished men were very unhappy. 
They longed to go back to their homes. 
But how could this be done ? It occurred to 
them that if they could only find some very 
rich mine of gold, or some very large, valu- 
able jewel, perhaps the king would pardon 
them and let them go back to their homes. 
Then they went to work. For six long years 
they toiled on without success. But one 
summer there came a long, severe drought. 
It hardly rained any all the season. The 
stream, near which they lived, dried up. 
They went into the bed of the river to dig 
for gold. While digging there they found the 
largest diamond they had ever seen. It was 
over an ounce in weight. They knew it was 
exceedingly valuable. They were filled with 
joy. They ventured to go home with this 
precious gem. They sent it to the King of 
Portugal in Lisbon. He was so delighted 



MY JEWELS. 23 

with it that he pardoned the men and let them 
stay at home. This was the famous "Star of 
the South." The king had a hole bored 
through it, and used to wear it round his 
neck on holidays. It has since been cut into 
a beautiful eight-sided jewel. In a French 
work on the subject of jewels, which I have, 
it is said that this diamond is supposed to be 
worth the surprising sum of three millions 
of pounds, or fifteen millions of dollars. 

Another of these celebrated diamonds is 
called the "Koh-i-noor," or Mountain of 
Light. This now belongs to Victoria, the 
Queen of England. It is said to have been 
found in the mines of Golconda, more than 
a thousand years before the birth of our Sa- 
viour. During all these many centuries it is 
said to have been in the possession of different 
rajahs, or princes, in India, and many stories 
are told about it. 

Once an Indian prince had conquered 
another. The conquered prince owned this 
gem, and wore it in his turban or head- 
dress. The conqueror saw it flashing in its 



24 BIBLE JEWELS. 

beauty there. He proposed to the conquered 
prince that they should exchange turbans 
in token of friendship. The poor fellow was 
very unwilling to do this. But he knew it 
would cost him his life if he refused. So he 
made the exchange, but lost that splendid 
jewel. 

There was another occasion when one 
Indian prince had conquered another in 
battle. The conquered prince was known to 
be the owner of the Koh-i-noor. The con- 
queror invited him to his palace. When he 
came, he was told that he never should go out 
again till he gave up his jewel to his conquer- 
or. He had expected this ; and to be 
prepared for it, he had a counterfeit, or 
imitation of the real jewel made. This he 
pretended to be very loath to part with, yet 
finally gave it up. Then he was set at liberty. 
The other prince was delighted to think of 
his great treasure. But when he gave it to 
his jeweller, to set it for him, he told him it 
was a counterfeit, and not the real jewel. 
Then he went to the palace of the prince who 



MY JEWELS, 25 

had deceived him, and tried to find the great 
diamond. He ransacked the palace from 
top to bottom, bat couldn't find it. At last 
one of the prince's slaves told him where 
it was hid, and the " Koh-i-noor " — the 
"Mountain of Light" — was found hidden 
away under a heap of ashes. But at last 
the English army conquered a part of India 
called the Punjaub. The prince of that 
country owned this celebrated diamond, and 
he was obliged to give it up to the Queen of 
England; and now it shines and sparkles 
among the crown jewels of that kingdom. 
It is worth about a million and a half, or two 
millions of dollars. 

Now we see, from what has been said, how 
very valuable jewels are. But perhaps some 
of you are ready to say, "Well, what is all 
this to us? We have no such jewels as 
these." 

Nay, but you have though. Every one of 
you has a jewel worth more than the Koh-i- 
noor, and the Star of the South, and all 
those costly gems put together. I mean by 



26 BIBLE JEWELS. 

this your soul. The soul of the youngest 
child here is worth more than all the gold 
and silver, and all the diamonds and rubies, 
and gems and jewels in the world. Jesus 
said that if a man should gain the whole 
world, and lose his soul by it, he would make 
a very bad bargain. Jesus knows what the 
soul is worth, for he made it. And when it 
was lost he paid the price that was required 
to redeem it, or save it. That price was his 
own precious blood. He shed this on the 
cross for us. And this shows us how very 
valuable our souls are. This is a very good 
reason why God should call his people jewels. 
He does it because they are very valuable. 

The third reason why Christians are like 
jewels is because they are hard to polish. 

Many diamonds, when they are found, have 
some stain or speck upon them, and they 
almost all have a rusty sort of coating, which 
must be taken off before their real beauty and 
brilliance can be seen. But this is a very 
hard thing to do. You know the diamond is 
one of the hardest things in the world. It is 



MY JEWELS. 27 

harder than iron, or steel, or stone. It is so 
hard that it will write on glass. It is so hard 
that nothing can be used to polish it but pow- 
der made out of diamonds. 

The men who polish diamonds, and other 
jewels, are called lapidaries. Lapis is the 
Latin word for a stone. And a lapidary 
means one who works in jewels or precious 
stones. If we should go into the workshop 
of a lapidary we should see a great variety of 
machinery, which is used in polishing jewels. 
Most of these are solid wheels made of hard 
wood or iron. They are about an inch or an 
inch and a half thick, and about a foot wide. 
They are like thin, small grindstones. They 
are so arranged that they can be made to turn 
round very fast. Then the diamond, which is 
to be cut or polished, is fixed very tight on 
the end of a piece of wood, so that one side 
of the diamond at a time can be held very 
steadily against the wheel while it is flying 
round rapidly, just as you have seen the 
scissors-grinder hold the scissors he is sharp- 
ening, against the grindstone. But the dia- 



28 BIBLE JEWELS. 

mond is so hard that this grinding sort of 
work has to be kept up a long time before the 
polishing is finished. It takes months of this 
sort of work to polish a diamond. The Pitt 
diamond, of which we have already spoken, 
took two years' time to polish it. So you see 
that polishing jewels is very hard work. And 
this is a very good reason why Christians are 
called jewels ; for they have to be polished, 
too, and it is hard work with them, just as it 
is with jewels. 

When we become Christians we are like 
diamonds, as they are found in the mines. 
There are specks, or stains, on us, which must 
be removed by polishing. These specks and 
stains mean the bad habits we have formed, 
which must be broken up ; or the bad tem- 
pers we have indulged, and which must be 
overcome. But there is one great difference 
here between diamonds and Christians, or 
between men's jewels and God's jewels. 
When a man is polishing a jewel, the jewel 
can't help him. It has nothing to do. But 
if we are God's jewels, when he is polishing 



MY JEWELS. 29 

us we must help him. There is something 
for us to do. And God won't carry on the 
work of polishing us, or making us better, 
unless we try to help him. Let me try to 
show you what I mean. 

Edward Norton was a good Christian boy. 
He was one of God's jewels. But there was 
quite a big speck on this jewel. He had a 
bad temper. A little thing would often make 
him very angry. He was fond of reading 
about the great conquerors spoken of in his- 
tory. His mother tried to show him how he 
might become a greater conqueror than they. 
Every tnorning, for a whole week, she made 
him repeat this verse, " He that ruleth his 
own spirit is greater than he that taketh 
a city." At the same time she taught him to 
pray to God for grace to help him to resist 
the temptation to get angry, and for power 
to rule his own spirit. 

One day, after they had been talking about 
this verse, Edward was playing with some 
boys. A dispute arose between them. One 
of them called Edward a fool, laughed at him, 



30 BIBLE JEWELS. 

and made fun of him. In a moment Edward 
grew red in the face. The fire began to flash 
from his eyes. He was just doubling up his 
fist, and raising his hand to strike a blow, 
when he suddenly stopped. He thought of 
what his mother had said about conquering 
his spirit. In a moment the silent prayer 
went up from his heart, "Lord, help me to 
overcome this angry spirit." God heard that 
prayer and helped him. No angry blow was 
struck. No angry word was spoken. He 
ruled his own spirit. And when he went 
home and told his mother about it, she threw 
her arms round his neck, and kissed him, 
and told him that he had gained a more glo- 
rious victory that day than any that Alexan- 
der, or Caesar, or Napoleon ever gained. 
That was true. And when Edward Norton 
was resisting that temptation, and trying to 
overcome his angry temper, he was helping 
God to polish one of his jewels, and remove 
an ugly speck from it. 

Let me tell you now about another little 
boy who helped to polish one of these jewels. 



MY JEWELS. 31 

This boy's name was Yfillie. He was trying 
to be a Christian. The spot on this jewel 
was not that of an angry, but of a selfish 
spirit. He liked to have his own way, and 
indulge, and please himself better than any 
one else. One Saturday Willie came home 
from school and said they were to have holi- 
day for a week. His mother told him that 
on Monday afternoon she was going to send 
their man Dennis with the wagon to a village 
six miles off, and that if he were a good boy, 
and the weather were fine, he might go along 
with him. Willie was delighted with the 
prospect of such a fine, long ride, for he loved 
riding above all things. 

The next day, while in church, and Sun- 
day school, Willie could hardly keep from 
thinking about that ride, and wishing that 
Monday afternoon would come. 

On Sunday evening, while sitting by his 
mother, he said, K Ma, the minister talked to 
us in Sunday school to-day, about self-denial. 
And he said that the more we denied our- 



32 BIBLE JEWELS. 

selves, for the good of others, the happier 
we should feel. Now is that really so?" 

"It is, Willie," said his mother. "The 
Bible tells us, 'It is more blessed to give 
than to receive ; ' and that we must ' take up 
our cross daily, and follow Christ.' " 

" Then, ma, I feel that I have been a very 
selfish little boy ; for I don't like to deny 
myself at all. I ate all those oranges myself, 
the other day, although I knew that Johnny 
Maloney would have been very glad of one, 
for he has just got over the fever, and I re- 
member how good they tasted when I was 
getting well, after I was sick last fall." 

"I'm glad, Willie, to find you have been 
thinking of this matter. If you wish to find 
out whether the minister's words are true, try 
it for yourself. Do something to deny your- 
self, the first chance you have, and see if you 
don't feel happier for it." 

Well, Monday morning came. It was a 
bright, clear, beautiful day. Willie was in 
fine spirits, thinking about the ride he was to 
have on the afternoon. The morning seemed 



MY JEWELS. 33 

very long. He thought it never would be 
gone. He didn't know what to do with him- 
self all the time. He got tired of staying in 
the sitting-room, so he thought he would go 
into the kitchen and see Mrs. Maloney, the 
washerwoman. 

"Ah ! master Willie," she cried, "how well 
ye're looking this morning ! And what a 
fine color ye have in yer cheeks ! Here's my 
poor Johnny as pale as the sheet I'm washing, 
ever since the faver left him. The docthor 
says he ought to take a ride now and then, 
and go out into the country a bit; but the 
likes o' me that has to wash for a living can't 
do that at all, at all." 

A sudden thought darted into Willie's 
mind ; and hardly stopping to answer, he hur- 
ried out into the yard. Then he walked up 
and down awhile, with a slow step. His face 
had an anxious and troubled look. A great 
conflict was going on in Willie's mind. The 
question was whether he should indulge him- 
self, or deny himself. It was a conflict like 
that famous one which the great Caesar had 



34 BIBLE JEWELS. 

on the banks of the Rubicon. All at once 
he stopped walking, and came to a dead halt. 
He planted his foot down firmly on the bricks 
and said, " I'll do it. I'll do it." 

Then he ran into the house. "Ma," said 
he," Johnny Maloney is downstairs ; and he 
looks so pale and thin, that I think the ride 
into the country will do him more good than 
it will me ; and as there is only room for one 
I'm going to let hira take my place, if you 
are willing." 

"Most certainly, my dear boy," said his 
mother, as she clasped him in her arms and 
gave him a hearty kiss. Willie flew to tell 
Mrs. Maloney of his decision ; and when the 
wagon drove up to the door, he stood nobly 
by while Johnny was lifted up on the high 
seat by the side of Dennis. As he watched 

them ride out of si^ht, both smiles and tears 

© 7 

were seen on Willie's face. It seemed 
doubtful, for a while, which would gain the 
day ; but at last he dashed away the tears, 
and the smiles got the victory. Then he 



MY JEWELS. 35 

went cheerfully away and spent the afternoon 
in doing some errands for his mother. 

At night Willie's mother was sitting by 
the side of his bed before he went to sleep. 
She put her hand fondly on his little curly 
head and said, "You have made me very 
happy, dear Willie, to day, by trying to 
practise so soon the lesson we were talking 
about yesterday. It was a great act of self- 
denial for you to give up the ride which you 
had been expecting with so much pleasure. 
But tell me now, Willie, do you feel happier 
or not for staying at home to let Johnny go ? " 

R Why, I feel happier than if I had taken 
the best ride in the world. And you say it 
made you happy, too ; and I know Mrs. Ma- 
loney and Johnny were happy ; and so only 
think how much happiness it caused. I'm 
sure I don't want to be selfish." 

Willie slept very sweetly that night. 
What a noble little fellow he was ! If he 
kept on in that way he would soon get the 
stain out of his jewel, and have it looking 
very bright and beautiful. 



36 BIBLE JEWELS. 

But these jewels are not always polished 
only for the sake of removing specks from 
them. The}?- are often cut, and polished on 
purpose to make them look more beautiful. 
If a large diamond is to be put on the crown 
of some great king, it is only by cutting and 
polishing that it can be made to shine with all 
its brilliance. When you look at a diamond, 
you see that it has many faces or sides. These 
don't belong to diamonds naturally. When 
they are found in the mines they have none 
of these smooth faces. They are then like 
little pebble-stones, without any particular 
shape. These smooth, even sides are made 
by the jeweller, or lapidary, by grinding, and 
polishing. And they are made on purpose 
to make the diamond look more beautiful. 
And just in the same way God cuts and pol- 
ishes his jewels, in order to make them shine 
more brightly and beautifully in the crown 
of his glory in heaven. 

Sometimes we see good Christian people 
who have very heavy trials which they are 
obliged to bear for many years. And when 



MY JEWELS. 37 

we see them bearing those trials we often 
wonder what it is all for. But the meaning 
of it is that God is using those trials just as 
the lapidary uses the files and wheels, to 
polish his jewels so as to make them brighter 
and more beautiful in heaven. There was 
that poor beggar at the gate of the rich man, 
of whom we read in the New Testament. 
He was left to be so poor, and to have all 
those dreadful sores, not because God couldn't 
help it. He could easily have made him a 
rich man and have kept him from having any 
sores at all, if he had pleased. But he was 
one of God's jewels, and God was making 
use of his poverty and beggary and sores, in 
order to polish that jewel and make it shine 
more beautifully in heaven. 

I was reading lately about a Christian 
woman who was kept on a sick bed, entirely 
unable to help herself, for twenty years. She 
had no use of her limbs. She was blind and 
dumb and suffered dreadful pains. She lost 
her father and four brothers and was left 
alone in the world. Yet she was always 



38 BIBLE JEWELS. 

cheerful and happy. Before she lost her 
voice she used to say that she wouldn't alter 
any of these trials if she could, because God 
sent them and he knew what was best. She 
was one of God's jewels and he was using 
all those trials to make her happier and more 
beautiful in heaven forever. And if this is 
the way in which God prepares his people for 
heaven, then they may well be compared to 
jewels, because they are hard to polish. 

My dear young friends, I want you all to 
love Jesus and serve him. Then you will be his 
jewels. And every jewel must be polished 
before it is fit for the jeweller to set it in the 
ring or crown for which it is intended. And 
it is just so with God's jewels. They all need 
polishing. And the church and Sunday school 
are God's workshop. God is like a great jew- 
eller or lapidary. In every church and Sunday 
school he has jewels which he wants to have pol- 
ished . And he makes use of ministers and teach- 
ers to help him in polishing his jewels. But then 
the jewels must take hold of the work and help, 
too. The hymn we sometimes sing, says : 



MY JEWELS. 39 

" There is something in heaven for children to do." 
And that's true. But there is something 
for you to do here too. You are God's jewels. 
But you need polishing. This is hard work, 
and you must help do it, or it will never be 
done. You must find out what your bad 
habits or bad tempers are, and then try to 
overcome them. These are the specks or 
stains on your jewels. And these must be 
polished off. The speck on Edward Norton's 
jewel was a quick, angry temper. We have 
seen how he tried to get that polished off. 
The speck on little Willie's jewel was a selfish 
spirit. We have seen how he tried to polish 
that off. In the same way you must find out 
what the speck is on your jewel, and try hard 
to get it polished off. 

Little Georgie was a boy only about five 
years old. He was trying to love Jesus and 
be a good boy. He was one of God's jewels ; 
but there was a speck in it. Georgie's fault 
was that he would get sulky and be obstinate. 
One day he had been doing something wrong, 
and his mother had to punish him for it. 



40 BIBLE JEWELS. 

This made him very sulky, and it took him a 
long while to get over it. Every night, when 
he had done saying his prayers after his 
mother, she used to teach him to pray in his 
own language ; to speak freely to God and 
tell him all that he wanted. So on the even- 
ing of this day Georgie remembered how 
wrong he had been, and he thought he must 
pray about that. And he did it in this way. 
He said : " O God ! bless Georgie and give 
him a new heart. Don't let him be naughty 
again, never; no, never. Because you know 
when he is naughty he sticks to it so. Help 
him to give up easy, and make him a good 
boy, for Jesus' sake. Amen." 

That was the way in which little Georgie 
tried to get the stain off his jewel. And that 
is the way in which we must try. Let us 
find out what our spots or stains are. And 
then let us pray to God to help us while we 
try to polish them off. And then, when God 
comes to make his jewels up, we shall be 
gathered among them and shine beautifully 
in heaven forever. 



II. 

"One Pearl of great price." — Matt. xiii. 46. 



II. 

" #tu f earl of great pri«." — Pair. *iiL 4tf . 

A pearl is a very beautiful jewel. It is 
generally round in form. Sometimes it has 
a tapering shape, something like a pear. Its 
color is a rich, soft, pure white, tinged with 
some of the colors of the rainbow. You 
know that the pearl is only found in a particu- 
lar kind of oyster. In old times, people used 
to have very strange ideas about the way in 
which they were formed. Some thought 
they were drops of dew, made hard in some 
strange way, and so turned into precious jew- 
els. Others thought they were the eggs 
laid by the female oyster. Others thought 
that when the oysters were injured, drops of 
liquid, like tears, would ooze out, on the 
inside of their shell, and these would turn 
into pearls. But we know now that they 
are formed just in the same way as the inside 

43 



44 BIBLE JEWELS. 

shell of the oyster. This is the reason why 
some beautiful shells are called pearl-shells. 
The inner lining of these shells is called 
"mother-of-pearl." This is used to make 
knife-handles, and paper-cutters, and ladies' 
card-cases, and work-boxes and many other 
useful and ornamental things. If a grain of 
sand, or a small bead, is put into the inside 
of a pearl-oyster shell while the animal is yet 
alive, and left there for a year or two, it will 
become a pearl; that is, it will be covered 
all over with this beautiful pearly substance. 
This shows us clearly the way in which pearls 
are made. 

Many years ago there was a learned man 
in Sweden who found this out about pearls. 
He told it to the King of Sweden, and pro- 
posed that they should establish a manufac- 
tory of pearls. The king was greatly delight- 
ed with the idea. He gave him a large present, 
to show how much he was pleased. Then he 
sent to the East Indies, where the best pearl- 
oysters come from, and got a large quantity 
of them. With these they formed a bed of 



THE PEARL. 45 

pearl-oysters in one of the rivers near the 
sea. They put little beads in the shells with 
the living oysters, and thought in this way 
they could make as many pearls as they 
wanted. But it didn't succeed. They made 
a few indeed, but found that it cost more to 
make them than they were worth; and so 
they gave it up. 

The pearl-oysters are found in many parts 
of the world. But the principal place is 
near the Island of Ceylon, in the Indian 
Ocean. The pearl is one of the most beauti- 
ful of all the jewels. The smaller pearls are 
worth from fifty cents to three dollars 
apiece. A necklace of pearls, as large as 
peas, will sell for different prices, varying from 
five hundred dollars to fifteen thousand dollars. 
Sometimes a single pearl will be found, of 
very large size, which will be truly "a pearl 
of great price." The largest pearl .now 
known in the world, and the most perfect in 
color and form, is about an inch in width 
at the broadest part, and about an inch and 
a half long. It is like a small pear, and is 



46 BIBLE JEWELS. 

said to be worth two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars. 

We read in Roman history about Queen 
Cleopatra. She was a very beautiful woman, 
and very rich ; but very wicked, and very 
foolish. One night she gave a great feast, in 
honor of the celebrated Roman general, Mark 
Antony. She had two of the most valuable 
pearls then known in the world. They 
were both alike, large, round, beautiful, 
and perfect in shape and color. Each of 
them was said to be worth more than four 
hundred thousand dollars — or almost half a 
million of dollars. Well, the story is, that 
in order to show how rich she was, and how 
much she thought of that brave soldier, she 
dissolved one of those valuable pearls in 
vinegar, and gave it to Antony to drink. 
I don't believe the story, but it has been told 
now for nineteen hundred years ; and, if it be 
true, then that Roman soldier had the most 
costly drink that anybody ever had. Only 
think, nearly half a million at a draught ! It 
must have tasted pretty strong of gold, or 



THE PEARL. 47 

silver. The mate of that beautiful pearl of 
Cleopatra's afterwards fell into the hands of 
Augustus, the Roman Emperor. He had it 
split in two, and used it to ornament the 
ears of the statue of the Goddess Venus. 
What became of it afterwards no one knows. 

Now it is because the pearl is so beautiful, 
and so valuable, that Jesus is compared to this 
jewel. He speaks of a merchant-man seek- 
ing goodly pearls. Presently he "found one 
pearl of great price, and went and sold all 
that he had and bought it." Jesus is called 
a pearl because he is so beautiful, — so pre- 
cious. He is called " the Pearl of great 
price" because there is no one else like him. 
I wish to give two reasons why it is proper 
to speak of Jesus as "the Pearl of great 
price." 

The first reason is because he was hard 
to GET. 

I don't mean by this that it is a hard thing 
now for you, or me, or anybody that wants 
this pearl to get it ; for this isn't hard, at all. 
It's very easy. But what I mean is, that Je- 



48 BIBLE JEWELS. 

sus had a hard time to make it so easy for us 
to get this precious pearl. 

For instance, suppose I had a small box 
here full of pearls. And suppose I should say 
to you, "Come to me, my dear boys and girls, 
and I will give each of you one of these beau- 
tiful pearls." It wouldn't be hard then for 
you to get a pearl, would it? No. You 
would only have to walk a few steps from 
where you are sitting, to come up to me, hold 
out your hand for the pearl, and it would be 
yours. That would be very easy. But sup- 
pose, after you had got your pearls, I should 
say to you, "Now, my dear young friends, I 
want you to take great care of these pearls, 
and prize them highly, for they were very 
hard to get. Just listen and I will tell you 
what I had to do before I could get them for 
you." For we will suppose that I had been 
to the pearl-fisheries and had gotten these 
pearls for you myself. And the things which 
I describe myself as doing, are just the things 
which somebody has to do for all the pearls 
you see shining on ladies' head-dresses. 



THE PEARL. 49 

Well, then, in the first place, I had a long 
voyage to make. I had to sail many thou- 
sands of miles across the seas till I reached 
the Island of Ceylon, in the Indian Ocean. 
I went to the pearl-fisheries off the northern 
part of that island. There I got into, a boat 
along with the fishermen. By-and-by we came 
to the fishing ground. It is away off to sea. 
The water was very deep. The pearl-oysters 
were far down at the bottom of the sea. The 
only way to get them is to dive down to 
the bottom, fill a basket with the oysters, 
and get pulled up again as quickly as possi- 
ble. Well, I had to put off nearly all my 
clothes ; a basket was hung from my neck, 
to put the oysters in ; a big stone was fas- 
tened to my feet, to make me sink quickly ; 
and, holding on with one hand to a rope, fixed 
round my body, the men in the boat lowered 
me down to the bottom. Oh, how many dan- 
gers there were ! At one time the current 
almost dashed me against some sharp, jagged 
rocks. Then a whirlpool came near drawing 
me in ; and just as I got my basket full of 






50 BIBLE JEWELS. 

oysters, and made signal to the men in the 
boat to pull me up, I saw a huge hungry 
shark coming towards me as fast as he could. 
How glad I was to escape his terrible jaws ! 
Well, I got safe up with my oysters. 

The next thing was to open them, and find 
out how many pearls were in them. And how 
was this to be done? Perhaps you think, 
why, in the same way in which we open our 
oysters — with a knife. No ; that is not the 
way. That would spoil the pearls. I had to 
spread them out in a trough, where the sun 
would shine on them ; and then wait till the 
shells opened, and the fish died, and their 
bodies all decayed and turned putrid. Then 
I had to wash off as much as I could of the 
decaying matter, and go feeling round among 
what was left for the pearls that were in it. 
The smell was horrible. The work was the 
most disagreeable that could possibly be. 
That is the way in which I got my pearls. 
That is the way in which all pearls are gotten. 
And so I might end as I began, by saying I 
want you to prize these pearls highly because 
they were hard to get. 



THE PEARL. 



51 



And Jesus may be called K the Pearl of 
great price," for the same reason. He was 
hard to get. I mean by this, that he had a 
great many hard things to do before he could 
become " the Pearl of great price " to us. The 
hard things that a pearl-diver does, in getting 
pearls, are nothing compared to what Jesus 
had to do, before he could be our friend and 
Saviour. He had to take a long journey. 
He came from heaven to earth. It took him 
thirty-three years to make this journey. He 
had to strip himself of the glorious garments 
that he used to wear in heaven, and put on 
the garments of a poor man. The pearl-diver 
has to plunge into the depths of the sea, 
where he can only stay two or three minutes 
at a time. When Jesus came into our world, 
it was like plunging into a sea, not of salt 
water, but of dreadful wickedness ; where he 
had to remain, not for a few moments, but 
for many long years. And he met with dan- 
gers and trials here, worse than the rocks and 
the whirlpools, and the terrible sea-monsters 
which the pearl-diver has so much reason to 



52 BIBLE JEWELS. 

be afraid of. He had to meet with the sharp 
tongues of wicked men, and they are worse 
than sharp rocks. They ridiculed him. They 
called him all sorts of bad names. They put 
a crown of thorns on his brow. They tore 
his back with cruel scourges. Not only 
wicked men, but wicked spirits gathered all 
about him, to worry and persecute him. 
These were worse a hundred times, than the 
sharks and sea-monsters, that threaten the 
pearl-diver. It was this which made him 
feel such dreadful pain and sorrow, in the 
garden of Gethsemane, that he sunk down to 
the ground and that bloody sweat came out 
all over his body. Oh, how hard that must 
have been ! And then they drove the big, 
rough nails through his tender hands and feet. 
They fastened him to the cross, and let him 
hang there till he died, a lingering, torturing 
death ! Oh, how hard that must have been ! 
This was the price at which this pearl was 
gotten for us ! What a price that was ! No- 
body can ever calculate how much that price 
was ! Jesus may well be called " the Pearl 



THE PEARL. 53 

of great price," because he was hard to get. 
This is the first reason. 

The second reason why Jesus may be called 
* the Pearl of great price " is because there 
are so many uses that we can make of him. 

If we had the most beautiful and valuable 
pearl iu the world there are only two things 
that we could do with it : we might wear it 
as an ornament ; or we might sell it, and 
spend the money. But if Jesus — " the Pearl 
of great price " — is ours, it is hardly possible 
to tell how many uses we can make of him. I 
have been preaching the gospel for almost 
thirty years. All this time I have been try- 
ing to tell about the many uses that poor 
sinners, such as we are, can make of Jesus. 
And yet, so far from getting through with all 
there is to say about him, I feel as if I had 
hardly begun. We can make use of Jesus 
for everything that our souls need. We can 
use him for meat and drink to our souls ; for 
clothing, for ornament, for medicine, for 
help, for strength, for wisdom, for riches, 
for pardon, for peace, for light, for joy, for 



54 BIBLE JEWELS. 

life and, in one word, for everything. Here, 
now, I have mentioned fourteen different uses 
that we can make of Jesus. I might increase 
this list to as many hundred. And then, if 
I should live long enough to preach a sermon 
on each of those fourteen hundred different 
uses to be made of Jesus, still the half of 
this subject would not be told. And if this 
is so, then we needn't wonder that true Chris- 
tians love so much to sing that precious 
hymn, which says, — 

" How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 
In a believer's ears ; 
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, 
And drives away his fears. 

44 It makes the wounded spirit whole, 
It calms the troubled breast ; 
'Tis manna to the hungry soul, 
And to the weary rest." 

But let us look more closely at two or 
three things for which Jesus is of use to his 
people. One important thing is for their 
protection. 



THE PEARL. 55 

We live in a world where we are exposed 
all the time to a great many dangers. We 
can't protect ourselves from these dangers. 
But Jesus can protect us ; and this is one 
thing that makes him of so much use to 
those who love him. 

You know that before the invention of gun- 
powder the things that men fought with were 
swords and spears and arrows. Then, before 
going into battle, the soldiers used to put 
armor on, of steel or brass. This armor was 
to protect them from being killed or wounded. 
But this life is like a battle-field. We are in 
danger here all the time. We need protec- 
tion. Jesus can put a sort of invisible armor 
round his people, to protect them. 

Many years ago there was a celebrated 
minister in Scotland, whose name was John 
Knox. He had a great many enemies on 
account of his faithful preaching. Some of 
these tried in many ways to kill him. When 
taking his meals in his own house he always 
used to sit at the head of the table, with his 
back to a particular window. One night, 



56 BIBLE JEWELS. 

when they were going to sit down to supper, 
it came into his mind, all at once, not to sit 
in that chair himself, and not to let any one 
else sit in it. He couldn't tell why, but he 
insisted on that chair being left empty. In 
the midst of supper a gun was fired. The 
ball went right through that empty chair, 
and buried itself in the foot of a large candle- 
stick on the table. Then they all saw why 
it came into Mr. Knox's mind to leave the 
chair empty that night. Jesus had done it. 
That was the way in which he put his invisi- 
ble armor about his servant for his protec- 
tion. 

Let me show you how Jesus put this same 
armor round one of our brave generals dur- 
ing the American Revolution, and protected 
him. This story is told of General Schuyler. 
He had a great deal to do along the Hudson 
and Mohawk rivers, where the English gener- 
als had hired the Indians to fight on their 
side. General Schuyler was a very brave 
man, and he had always been a great friend 
to the Indians, so that they both loved him 



THE PEARL. 57 

and feared him. But the English officers 
wanted to get him out of the way, and as he 
never seemed to get hurt in battle, they 
hired two men — one a white man, the other 
an Indian — to waylay him and murder him. 
The time was set; the two men hid them- 
selves in a clump of trees which the general 
was accustomed to pass on his way home. 
They waited and watched awhile. By-and- 
by they saw the general coming along the 
road. He was on horseback, and alone. 
Now or never was their chance. The men 
looked to the priming of their guns. They 
raised them to their shoulders. They took 
aim. In another moment the general would 
have been a dead man. But, instead of firing, 
the Indian lowered his gun to the ground. 
He pushed the white man's gun aside ; — 
"No," said he, "I can't see him killed. I've 
eaten his bread too often." And so the 
general rode on to his home in safety, little 
dreaming what a narrow escape he had just 
had from death. Thus you see how Jesus 
put his invisible armor around him and pro- 



58 BIBLE JEWELS. 

tected him. One of the things for which 
Jesus is of use to his people, is for protec- 
tion. 

Another thing for which Jesus is of use to 
his people is for guidance. 

It is a sad thing to be lost in a wilderness, 
where there are no roads, and not to know 
which direction to take in order to get out. 
What such a person needs above all things, 
is a guide ; some one to show him the way to 
take in order to get safe home. Now, we are 
in this world, like travellers who have lost 
their way. We have lost the way to heaven, 
our Father's house. And what we need is 
guidance ; some one to show us how we can 
get there. If we had all the pearls in the 
world, they could not help us in this matter. 
But Jesus, "the Pearl of great price," can. 
This is one of the ways in which he can be of 
use to his people, and this use is of great 
price. Sometimes Jesus guides his people by 
his example. 

Howie Malcolm was a little boy about six 
years old. He lived in the country. Once, 



THE PEARL. 59 

in the middle of winter, lie went to spend the 
day with his cousin Kobby Darwin. Toward 
the close of the afternoon Howie's father came 
to take him home. The ground was covered 
with snow, and as they were about starting 
Howie said, — 

" The snow is so deep, and it's a long walk ; 
won't you please to carry me, papa?" 

"No, my dear," said his father ; " I have a 
particular reason for wishing j^ou to walk. 
But I will go before you, and then, if you 
will follow in my footsteps, the snoww^ill not 
seem so deep. But don't turn aside to the 
right hand or to the left. And don't try to 
make a path for yourself over the hill, for 
that which I am showing you is the only one 
to lead you home." 

Then his father went before him, taking 
short steps, so that the little fellow could 
easily follow him. And while he kept tread- 
ing in his father's steps he got on very nicely. 
But by-and-by he saw a holly-bush a little 
distance from the road. He thought he would 
just like to pluck oft' a branch to take home 



60 BIBLE JEWELS. 

with him. Then he started for the bush; 
but pretty soon he was sticking fast in the 
deep snow, and was obliged to call his father 
to come and take him out. He did so. He 
set him in the right path again, and told him 
not to turn aside, but to keep treading in his 
footsteps, and then he would be safe. So 
they went on for a while longer. Then he 
thought he could get home by a shorter path 
than his father was taking. So he started to 
make a short cut across the fields. But 
pretty soon he was fast in the snow again, 
and his father had to come once more and 
take him out. After that he followed the 
guidance of his father till they reached home. 
And when they were sitting by the fire in 
the evening his father told him that the rea- 
son why he did not carry him home was that 
he wanted to show him how it was that Jesus 
guides his people to heaven. " When I 
walked before you, Howie," said Mr. Mal- 
colm, "you could see my steps in the snow, 
and, by following them, you found that you 
were brought safely home. And just in the 



THE FEARL. fll 

same way Jesus came into the world to be 
our guide. He walked before us to show us 
the way to heaven. As the Bible says, "He 
left us an example that we should follow his 
steps." Our work here is to be following the 
footsteps of Jesus. And when we are trying to 
be like Jesus, — to think, and feel, and speak, 
and act as he would do, — then we are " tread- 
ing in the blessed steps of his most holy life ; " 
and if we follow on in those steps we shall be 
guided safely through this world to heaven. 

But, besides guiding his people to heaven 
by his example, Jesus often guides them out 
of their troubles here, in very singular ways. 

Some years ago Lord Wellington had an 
English army in Spain, trying to drive the 
French out of that country. A bloody battle 
was fought at Talavera. In the 42d Eegi- 
ment of Scotch Highlanders, belonging to 
Wellington's army, was a sergeant whose 
name was McCullum. He was wounded so 
dangerously that he was reported among the 
killed, though he was not killed. His wife, 
with her little boy, had followed the army as 



62 BIBLE JEWELS. 

nurse in the hospital. But she had been very 
ill, and died about the time of the battle. 
Now, what was to become of that little boy, 
left alone among strangers, in an army march- 
ing through a foreign country? What could 
you expect, but that he would be left to per- 
ish ? But God put it into the heart of a kind 
officer, connected with the army, to take 
charge of him. When the army went back 
to England, supposing that the little fellow's 
father was dead, he tried to find out if he 
had any relations. But he couldn't find any. 
Then he thought he would put him into the 
Military Asylum at Chelsea. 

When the little boy's father got well, he 
tried to find his child. He inquired every- 
where for him, but could hear nothing of him. 
He was afraid he should never see him again. 
But he used to pray every day that God would 
take care of him, if he were still alive, and 
would guide him so that he might find him. 

One day the person who had charge of the 
little boy, was going to the office of Lord 
Huntly, in London, to get an order for his 



THE PEARL. 63 

admission into the Asylum. Just before he 
reached the place, he saw a Scotch soldier a 
little ahead of him. He hastened up to him 
and said, — 

"My friend, do you belong to the 42d 
Regiment of Highlanders ? " 

"I do, sir." 

K Were you present at the battle of Talave- 
ra?" 

"Yes, sir." 

"Do you know anything about a Sergeant 
McCullum who was killed in that battle ? " 

"I did not know any man of that name 
who was killed there; but pray, sir, tell me 
why you ask that question ? " 

"Because," said the officer, pointing to the 
child, " that is his little boy whom I brought 
from Spain." 

"O sir," said the man, " he's my child ; " 
and rushing towards the boy he clasped him 
in his arms, and cried, "O Jamie, Jamie! 
don't you know me ? " What a happy meeting 
that was ! And how mercifully God had 
guided that father so that he should find 



64 BIBLE JEWELS. 

his lost child. Guidance, therefore, is one 
of the things for which Jesus is of use to his 
people. 

And then he is of use to them for comfort. 

There are a great many sorrows and trials 
in this world. And when they come, we 
need comfort under them. But if you are 
sick, or in pain, or if in sorrow for the death 
of your father, or mother, or some dear 
friend, it won't take away your pain, or help 
you to bear it, or comfort you in any 
way, to have a string of pearls tied round 
your neck. A common pearl can't give 
any comfort then. But Jesus, w the Pearl 
of great price," can. He says in the Bi- 
ble, "As one whom his mother comfort- 
eth, so will I comfort you." What a sweet 
promise that is ! Nobody can comfort like a 
mother. She is so gentle and kind ! She 
knows just what to do to make us feel bet- 
ter, when we are sick, or in trouble. I 
said nobody can comfort like a mother. But 
that was a mistake, for Jesus can ; yes, and 
better even than any mother. Sometimes 



THE PEARL. 65 

we have troubles under which even a mother 
cannot comfort us. But we never can have 
a trouble under which Jesus cannot give us 
comfort. 

When the celebrated Whitefield was 
preaching in England, a gentleman who 
heard him was thrown into great distress of 
mind. He felt as if his sins were so great 
that they could not be forgiven. He couldn't 
eat. He couldn't sleep. He couldn't attend 
to his business. It seemed as if he would 
die, unless he found comfort. One evening 
the Countess of Huntingdon, an excellent 
lady, who was in company with him, heard 
him say to a friend, "I am a lost man. My 
sins never can be forgiven. I am a lost 
man." 

11 I am glad to hear it ; I am glad to hear 
it," said the Countess. 

K It is very wicked in you to say you are 
glad that I am a lost man," said he. 

"I repeat it," said she, r l am heartily glad 
of it ; because it is written r the Son of Man 
came to seek and to save that which is lost.' " 

5 



66 BIBLE JEWELS. 

The gentleman burst into tears, and ex- 
claimed, " Oh, how precious those words 
are ! I will take my lost soul to Jesus and 
he will save it." So Jesus comforted him. 

Some Bible distributors in going round 
their district once gave a Bible to a poor 
woman. A long time after, in going round 
again, they met her, and asked her what 
she thought of the Bible. "Think of it?" 
she said, * why, I wouldn't part with it for 
all this world can offer. Since I have had 
this Bible I have passed through many great 
trials. And in those trials my Bible has 
given me more comfort than all the riches 
in the world can give. I have found Jesus 
there. He has pardoned my sins, and given 
me the hope of going to heaven, and there's 
no comfort like that." So Jesus comforted 
that poor woman. 

Jesus may be called " the Pearl of great 
price," for two reasons. The first is because 
he was hard to get. The second is, because 
there are so many uses that we can make of 
him. We have spoken of three of these. 



THE PEARL. 67 

He is of use for protection, for guidance, for 
comfort. 

Oh, howl wish, my dear young friends that 
you all had this " Pearl of great price " ! Let 
me tell you one more story, in closing. 

Some years ago an English merchant w r as 
engaged in business in the island of Java. He 
got very rich there. He married a lady of that 
country, and returned to England. This lady 
could not get used to the customs of the Eng- 
lish ladies, and was not very happy there. 
She spent most of her time in playing with 
her children, whom she loved very much, and 
in decking herself out with her pearls and 
jewels, of which she had a very large and 
costly collection. She would often call for 
her jewel-box, and spend hours in looking at 
them and holding them up to see them sparkle 
in the light. These jewels were her treas- 
ures. Her heart was set on them, and she 
had little happiness beyond what she found 
in them. 

One day her old Scotch nurse, who was a 
good Christian woman, was in the room. 



68 BIBLE JEWELS, 

The lady said to her, " Nurse, I think Eng- 
land is a poor place." 

"Why so, ma'am?" asked the nurse. 

w Why, I look out into the streets, and don't 
see any ladies with jewels on. Now, in my 
country all the ladies are covered with dia- 
monds and pearls. We dig into our hills 
and get gold and silver and precious jewels. 
You dig into your hills and get nothing like 
them." 

The nurse said, — 

"Oh, yes, ma'am, we have a pearl in this 
country, c a Pearl of great price.' " 

" Have you, indeed," said the lady. " When 
my husband comes home Til get him to buy 
it for me. I would part with all my other 
pearls to get that valuable one." 

w Oh ! " said the nurse, w this pearl is not to 
wear. It is not to be had in the way you 
think of. It is a precious pearl indeed ; and 
they who have it cannot lose it. They are 
at peace and have all they wish for." 

"Indeed ! " said the lady, astonished. 

"What can this pearl be? I must get it, 
if pos&ible." * 



THE PEARL. 69 

"This pearl," said the nurse, in her simple 
way, "is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the 
saying that he came into the world to save 
sinners. All who truly receive this saying, 
and have Jesus in their hearts, as the hope 
of glory, have that which makes them rich 
and happy, whatever else they want ; and so 
precious is Jesus to them that they count all 
things but loss for the excellency of the 
knowledge of him." 

It pleased God to bless the nurse's words. 
Her mistress was led to seek a better treas- 
ure than her box of jewels. She became a 
Christian. She found "the Pearl of great 
price." Soon after, the lady died ; and on 
her death-bed directed that all her jewels 
should be sold, and the money which they 
brought be used to send the knowledge of 
K the Pearl of great price " to those who had 
never heard of him. 

My dear youug friends, try to find this 
precious pearl. It is of great price. It 
will be worth more to you than all the gold 
and silver — and all the gems and jewels in 
the world ! 



III. 



"And the second row shall be ... a Diamond." — Ex- 
odus xxviii. 18. 



III. 

"ginb i\t seconb rob s^all hz . . . a gramonb." — <£*- 
obtis x*bui. XH. 

These words refer to the breastplate of 
the Jewish high-priest. This was made of 
fine linen, and beautifully ornamented with 
threads of gold, and other threads of blue, 
purple, and scarlet. It was made square, 
each side being about a span long. In the 
front of it were four rows of jewels. The 
first row was a sardius, a topaz, and a car- 
buncle ; and the second row was an emerald, 
a sapphire, and a diamond. The diamond is 
only mentioned in three places, in the Bible, 
and this is one of them. And I have taken 
this passage for our text to-day only because 
it contains the word diamond. 

We have talked about the reasons why God 
calls his people jewels. And then we have 
considered Jesus as "the Pearl of great price." 

73 



74 BIBLE JEWELS. 

Now I wish to talk about the different kinds 
of jewels. And I begin with the diamond, 
because it is one of the most valuable of 
jewels, as well as the most beautiful. Suppose 
now, we have a beautiful diamond here. We 
may consider this as representing a Christian. 
Every true Christian is a spiritual diamond, 
one of God's jewels. 

Let us look at this diamond and see what 
there is about it on account of which a Chris- 
tian may be compared to it. 

And the first thing about the diamond to 
notice is its hakdness. 

It is one of the hardest things in the world. 
You may rub it all day against a pebble- 
stone. You may keep on rubbing till the 
pebble is all ground to dust; but it won't 
leave any mark on the diamond. You may 
get the hardest file that can be made, and 
rub it on the diamond till the file is worn as 
smooth as glass ; but^it won't hurt the dia- 
mond the least in the world. It will bear a 
great deal of rough handling, without being 
scratched, or injured at all. 



THE DIAMOND. 75 

And Christians are just like diamonds on 
this account. They can bear trial or hard 
treatment without being injured by it. Job 
was one of God's diamonds. Satan said if 
God would only let him take Job in hand, 
and bring heavy trials upon him, which 
would be like rubbing a diamond with a file, 
he could mark him, and injure him, in such a 
way as to show that he was not a true diamond. 
He got a hard file, and rubbed him very se- 
verely with it ; but it didn't hurt him at all. 
He killed his children, and destroyed his prop- 
erty ; he took away his friends, and his health, 
and left him in poverty and misery ; but he 
couldn't make Job give up loving God, and 
trusting him. If you can only make a 
scratch on the surface of what is thought to 
be a diamond, that shows it is not a true 
diamond. A real diamond is so hard that 
no file can ever make a mark, or scratch 
upon it. And Satan found that this was 
the case with Job. He rubbed away on him 
with the file of affliction till he got tired ; but 
he couldn't make any mark upon him to 



76 BIBLE JEWELS. 

show that he was not a real diamond. He 
had the hardness of a true diamond. He had 
'power to bear trial. 

And Satan did the same thing with the 
early Christians. He used persecution as 
a file. In those days Christians were put in 
prison ; their property was taken from them ; 
they w x ere thrown to the wild beasts ; they 
were burned, and tortured, and put to death 
in many ways ; but even these things could 
not make them give up loving Jesus, and 
being Christians. Those terrible persecu- 
tions were a hard file to be rubbed with. 
But the Christians of those days were real 
diamonds. They had the hardness of the 
diamond. They had power to bear trials 
without being injured by them. 

And all God's spiritual diamonds have 
this hardness. God gives to true Christians 
the power to bear trials. 

I remember, some years ago, making a 
visit to Wilkesbarre in this State. A day 
or two before I arrived there, a dreadful 
explosion had taken place in one of the coal 



THE DIAMOND. 77 

mines. Several men had been killed, and 
others had been burnt so badly that they 
were not expected to live. I was sent for to 
go and see one of those poor men. When I 
entered the room where he was, what a sight 
I beheld ! There sat the poor man in a 
large arm-chair. He was wrapped all round 
in blankets, and these were wet through 
with linseed oil and lime-water. The flame 
of the explosion had burnt off his clothes, and 
scorched liis body from head to foot. His 
hands and his head were swollen to nearly 
twice their natural size. The skin of his 
face and hands was burnt crisp, and looked 
just like the skin of a roast pig. A person 
stood by him bathing his face and hands 
with a mixture of linseed oil and lime-water, 
which was put on by a feather. He was 
suffering dreadfully. It was difficult for him 
to speak, because the skin of his face was so 
hard and stiff. I stood awhile and looked at 
the poor man with great pity. My heart felt 
very sad and sorrowful for him. I thought 
to myself, " what shall I say to this poor 



78 BIBLE JEWELS. 

fellow to comfort him, if he is not a Chris- 
tian.*' I hardly knew what to do. At last 
I said, — . 

"My friend, there is nobody like Jesus to 
give us help and comfort when we are suffer- 
ing from pain and sorrow. I hope you 
know Jesus?" I hardly expected any other 
answer than a groan, to tell of his misery, 
and that he had no comfort. But presently 
he managed slowly and indistinctly to say, — 

"Oh, yes! thank God, I do know Jesus. 
He is my only comfort now." 

You can hardly tell what a relief this was 
to me. Then I sat down by his side and 
talked to him about Jesus. He seemed to 
feel the truth of all that I said. He had the 
hardness of a true diamond. Jesus gave 
him power to bear his trials patiently. Un- 
der all his terrible sufferings he found peace 
and comfort in him. And not long after, he 
died, in great bodily pain, but feeling happy 
in the love of Jesus and in the thought of 
going to be with him forever. 

But there is another thing the diamond can 



THE DIAMOND. 79 

do, on account of its hardness, besides bear- 
ing rough handling, without being hurt. It 

Can MAKE MARKS THAT CANNOT BE RUBBED 
OUT. 

The diamond, you know, will cut glass. 
You have often seen the glazier, when a pane 
of glass was too large, put his rule upon it, 
draw his diamond across it, and cut a piece 
off, almost as easily as you or I could cut a 
piece of paper off with a penknife. Take a 
diamond in your hand, and you can write 
your name on a pane of glass. And when it 
is once written there, no one can rub it out. 

Now, when we become Christians we are 
like diamonds in the hand of God. And 
when we do anything to show our love to him, 
it is written down in the book of God's re- 
membrance. And the good works of his 
people (written in that book) are like names 
written with the point of a diamond on glass ; 
they never can be rubbed out. 

The Bible tells us that a large part of the 
heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, is com- 
posed of gold, and that gold is clear as 



80 BIBLE JEWELS. 

glass. It is transparent; you can see 
through it. What a blessed thing it is to 
think of having our names, and everything 
we do for Jesus written there, so that they 
never can be rubbed out ! Every little move- 
ment made with the point of a diamond on 
glass will leave a mark there. And so every- 
thing we do for Jesus, no matter how little, 
will be written on the golden glass of heaven 
in such a way that it can't be rubbed out. 

We read in the New Testament about the 
woman who came to our Saviour before his 
crucifixion, and poured the ointment on his 
feet. The disciples found fault with her; 
but Jesus took her part, and said that wherev- 
er the gospel was preached, in all the world, 
the good deed she had done, should be 
known and mentioned to her honor. She 
made a mark then that will never be rubbed 
out. 

One day the superintendent of a Sunday 
school in this city was going along near 
Third and Dock street. He saw one of the 
large boys belonging to his school coming 



THE DIAMOND. 81 

out of a drinking saloon. The boy's name 
was George Simpson. As the superintend- 
ent passed by he raised his finger, and shak- 
ing it gently he said, in a kind, but seri- 
ous way, "Take care, George, take care." 
Some ten or twelve years passed away. He 
had forgotten all about it. But one day a 
very genteel-looking man came up to him 
in the street, and, bowing to him, said, 
"I think, sir, this is Mr. P., who used to be 
superintendent of such a Sunday school?" 

"That is my name, sir, but I don't remem- 
ber you. 5 ' 

" Don't you remember a boy named George 
Simpson, who used to belong to your school ? " 

"No, I can't recollect the name." 

"Well, sir, don't you remember meeting 
him one day, coming out of a drinking-place 
near the corner of Third and Dock street, 
when you shook your finger at him and said, 
f Take care, George' ?" 

"Oh, yes, I remember that." 

"Well, sir," said the young man, "I am 
George Simpson, and I want to thank you 
6 



82 BIBLE JEWELS. 

for what you did and said that day. It was 
a little thing, but it saved me from ruin. I 
was just beginning to go in the drunkard's 
ways. But something in your words and 
manner made a great impression on me. I 
gave up drinking. Not long after, I joined, 
the church. Now I am living in the West, 
and am quite well off; but, my dear sir, I owe 
it all to you." 

Here you see how that superintendent was, 
like a diamond, making a mark that never 
can be rubbed out. 

Some years ago, a missionary in India, in 
going through a village, left a copy of the 
New Testament in the shop of one of the na- 
tives, that any persons coming in there might 
read it. A great many read it. They talked 
about the new religion and wished to know 
more about it. At last they sent a commit- 
tee, of some of the most intelligent men of 
the village, to the city of Serampore, where 
the missionary lived, who left the Testament, 
in order to learn more about the religion of 
Jesus. The missionary went and preached 



THE DIAMOND. 83 

to the people of that village. A number of 
them became Christians, and several of them 
were appointed missionaries. They preached 
the gospel through that part of the country, 
and great numbers were converted through 
Gods blessing on their labors. It was a lit- 
tle thing which the missionary did when he left 
the testament in that village, bat in doing so 
he made a mark that will never be rubbed out. 

The first thing about a diamond, on ac- 
count of which a Christian may be compared 
to it, is its hardness. It can bear rough using, 
or trials, without being injured ; and it can 
make marks that can't be rubbed out. 

The second thing about a, diamond on ac- 
count of which a Christian may be compared 

tO it is its BRIGHTNESS. 

The diamond is the most brilliant of all 
the jewels. It shines with more brightness 
than any other. And the reason why it does 
this is, that when the rays of light fall upon 
it, God has given it the power to reflect them, 
as it is called, that is, to throw them back, or 
scatter them. The diamond doesn't keep to 






84 BIBLE JEWELS. 

itself the light that God sends it, but gives it 
back that others may see it, and enjoy it. 
In this respect the diamond is like a liberal- 
hearted Christian. Jesus said to his disci- 
ples, " Freely ye have received ; freely give." 
This is just what the diamond does. It gives 
up freely the rays of light that God freely 
bestow T s upon it. And this is what makes it 
look so bright and beautiful. And so you 
see that when Jesus said, "Freely ye have 
received, freely give," it is about the same 
as if he had said, "Be like the diamond 
which gives back again so freely the light 
which it receives." 

Now, put a piece of coal side by side with 
the diamond. How bright and beautiful the 
diamond looks ! And, in comparison with 
it, how dark, how ugly the piece of coal is ! 
The diamond, shining so beautifully, and 
scattering its light around for the benefit of 
others, is like a liberal, generous-hearted 
Christian. And the piece of coal, keeping 
all the rays of light it receives to itself, is like 
a selfish miser, always trying to get all he 



THE DIAMOND. 85 

can, and to keep all he gets. Jesus said, 
"It is more blessed to give ihan to receive." 
A diamond and a piece of coal are the best 
illustration of this. 

Now, let us take one or two examples of 
liberal Christians, and see how they shine like 
diamonds, and then look at one or two selfish 
misers, and see how ugly they appear in com- 
parison with them. 

Lady Huntingdon was a noble Christian 
woman who lived in England some years ago. 
She was riot very rich, considering that she 
belonged to the nobility. Her income was 
about six thousand dollars a year. She lived 
in a very plain way, spending as little money 
as possible on herself, and giving away all 
the rest of it in doing good to others. She 
founded a college to educate ministers and 
supported it herself. She built a number of 
chapels in different parts of the kingdom, 
and supported ministers in them to preach 
the gospel. She was like a diamond shining 
brightly, and scattering abroad for the good 
of others the blessings that God gave to her. 



86 BIBLE JEWELS. 

John Wesle}^, the celebrated Methodist 
minister, was one of the most generous and 
liberal Christians that ever lived. When he 
first began to preach, his salary was thirty 
pounds a year, in English money, or about a 
hundred and fifty dollars. He found he could 
manage to live on twenty-eight pounds ; so 
he saved two pounds, not to keep to himself 
like the coal, but to scatter among others like 
the diamond. The next year his salary was 
sixty pounds. He still lived on twenty- 
eight, and gave away thirty-two. The third 
year his salary was ninety pounds, and he 
gave away sixty-two. The fourth year his 
salary was a hundred and twenty pounds. 
But he still lived on twenty-eight pounds, and 
gave away all the rest. This was being like 
the diamond, indeed ! 

Some years ago there was an excellent 
minister in France, by the name of Oberlin. 
One dav he was reading in the Old Testa- 
ment where God told the Jews that he ex- 
pected them to give a tithe, that is a tenth, of 
all their property to him. Mr. Oberlin said 



THE DIAMOND. 87 

to himself, "Well, I am sure, that I, as a 
Christian, have three times as many blessings 
as the Jews had. If it was right for a Jew to 
give one-tenth of his property to God, surely 
I ought to give at least three times as much." 
So he made up his mind to do this. Out of 
every ten dollars that he received, he laid 
aside three to give to God and the poor. Out 
of every hundred dollars, he laid aside thirty. 
He kept on doing this all his life, and God 
blessed him for it, and he always had as 
much money as he needed. 

These Christians were like the diamond. 
They were liberal, and scattered, or gave 
away the blessings God gave them. This 
makes them shine and look beautiful as the 
diamond does. When we think of them there 
seems to be a brightness round them like that 
of the diamond. 

Now, let us look at one or two examples 
of selfish, miserly people, who keep all the 
money they get, just as the coal keeps all 
the light that shines on it. 

Some time ago there w r as a miser who 






88 BIBLE JEWELS. 

lived in England, by the name of Dancer. 
His income was fifteen thousand dollars a 
year. Besides this he had immense sums of 
gold and silver stowed away in different places 
where nobody would be likely to find it. He 
never gave away a cent to anybody ; and he 
never liked to spend the least trifle for him- 
self, if he could help it. He used to wear an 
old hat, which he had kept for nearly twenty 
years. One day, a lady who knew him, met 
him in the street, and persuaded him to buy 
another hat. He wouldn't be so extravagant 
as to get a new one, so he finally concluded 
to buy a second-hand one from an old Jew. 
He gave him a shilling for it. But the next 
time the lady saw the old miser, she observed 
he was still wearing his old hat; and, on in- 
quiring about it, she found that the hat he 
gave a shilling for he had persuaded his ser- 
vant to buy from him for one shilling and 
sixpence. So he made sixpence by the sale 
and went on wearing his old hat. In cold 
weather he used to lie in bed most of the 
time, so as to keep warm and save the ex- 



THE DIAMOND. 89 

pense of a fire. He never used snuff himself, 
but always carried a snuff-box about him, 
and when anybody offered him snuff he 
would take a pinch, but, instead of using it, 
would open his box and put it in. When 
the box was full he would sell it, or exchange 
it for farthing candles. These were the only 
lights he had in his house, and these were 
never used except when he was going to bed. 
He seldom washed his hands or face except 
when the sun was shining. Then he would 
go to some pool or stream near where he 
lived, and wash himself, using sand to save 
soap. When he was washed he would lie on 
his back and dry himself in the suu, because 
it wasn't worth while to go to the expense of 
a towel. He never would have his shoes 
cleaned, because rubbing them with a brush 
helped to wear them out. After his death, 
cups and jars and jugs were found stowed 
away in different holes and corners about his 
house, filled with gold and silver coin, and 
his greatest happiness, while living, was to 



90 BIBLE JEWELS. 



take these out, count them over, and then put 
them carefully back. 

There was a miser in Russia, some time 
ago, who was so rich that he sometimes lent 
to the Emperor a million of money at a time. 
He would barely allow himself food enough 
to live upon. He used to keep his money in 
casks which were buried in the cellar. His 
chief dependence for the protection of this 
treasure was upon a very fierce dog, who was 
kept chained up all day, and then at night 
would guard the house by barking loudly all 
the time. But at length the dog died. The 
poor rich man didn't want to go to the ex- 
pense of buying another dog. Besides, if he 
should buy one, he could not depend upon 
him to keep awake all night. So he thought 
he might as well be his own dog, and act- 
ually used to keep awake all night, and go 
about the house barking as loudly as he 
could in imitation of his faithful dog. 

A piece of coal does not reflect any light. 
All the light that falls on it is swallowed up 
and kept to itself. This is what makes it 



THE DIAMOND. 91 

look so black, so dark and disagreeable. 
Selfish, miserly people, such as we have just 
been speaking of, are like coal in this re- 
spect. They don't reflect, or scatter about 
them anything they receive. Whatever God 
gives them they swallow up and keep to 
themselves. And the sparkling diamond and 
the dull, ugly, looking piece of coal, are not 
more different from each other than liberal, 
generous-hearted Christians, like Lady Hunt- 
ingdon and John Wesley, are different from 
such selfish, miserly people as those just 
referred to. The brightness of the diamond, 
or its power to reflect or scatter light, is the 
second thing on account of which a Christian 
may be compared to it. 

But there is a third thing connected with 
diamonds, on account of which Christians may 
he compared to them, and that is, the way to 

FIND OUT COUNTERFEITS. 

There arc many counterfeit diamonds. Men 
can make imitation diamonds. And these of- 
ten look so very much like the real, that it is 
difficult to tell one from the other. And then 



92 BIBLE JEWELS. 

God sometimes makes stones that appear so 
much like diamonds that hardly one person out 
of twenty can tell the difference between them. 
Sometimes even the merchants who are en- 
gaged in buying and selling diamonds can 
hardly tell a real jewel from an imitation. 

Some years ago a free negro, who lived in 
Brazil, wrote to the emperor telling him that 
he had found an enormous diamond, — the 
largest that had ever been seen ; and he asked 
the privilege of being allowed to come in 
person and present it to the emperor. One 
of the emperor's carriages was sent down for 
him and an escort of soldiers. The darky 
rode up to the palace in great state. When 
he arrived he threw himself at the feet of the 
emperor, and presented to him the diamond. 
He was astonished when he saw it, and so 
were all the nobles in the court. They ex- 
amined it with great care. They weighed it, 
and found it was about a pound in weight. 
Then they began to calculate how much it 
was worth. Judging by its weight, they 
found it would be worth one hundred and 



THE DIAMOND. 93 

eigMy-seven millions of dollars. No wonder 
they were glad, and made a great ado over 
the colored man who brought it. Then the 
large diamond was put carefully away, in a 
strong chest, in the emperor's jewel-room. 
That room was locked, and soldiers appointed 
to guard it night and day. 

About that time an English gentleman 
visited the emperor. He was known to be 
an excellent judge of diamonds. The em- 
peror invited him into his jewel-room to see 
his great treasure. The strong chest was 
opened. The huge jewel was brought out. 
He looked at it. He took a diamond ring 
from his finder. He drew it across the sur- 
face of the large jewel. It made a scratch. 
This showed it was no diamond at all. The 
emperor's hundred and eighty-seven millions 
of dollars all melted away like a castle in 
the air. The poor darky who brought it 
had to trudge home on foot! "It is not all 
gold that glitters." It is not every bright 
stone that is a diamond. One of the ways 
to tell a counterfeit is by trying to scratch it. 



94 BIBLE JEWELS. 

A real diamond can't be scratched. Another 
way is by putting it beside a true diamond 
and comparing them together. And so, if 
you wish to tell if a person is a true Chris- 
tian, you must compare him with Jesus, and 
see if he is like him. Jesus was gentle, 
loving, and kind. And the Bible says that 
" unless the same mind be in us that was in 
Christ Jesus we are none of his." This 
means that unless we are like him we are not 
true Christians. 

I remember hearing of two boys who were 
brothers. The elder was named George, 
the younger Charles. 

"Halloo, George," said one of his school- 
mates to him one day, "I hear your Charley 
has become a Christian ; is that so ? " 

"I don't know," said George, "but I mean 
to find out." Now George was going to 
apply some test to Charley's character, just 
as a jeweller would do when he wanted to 
find out whether a particular stone was a 
real diamond or a counterfeit. 

One time he broke his kite, just before he 



THE DIAMOND. 95 

was going out to fly it. At another time he 
trod on his toe, when he was going past him. 
At another he threw a stone at Charley's pet 
dog and sent him yelping to his master. 

Charley was naturally a very passionate 
boy. George knew, very well, that formerly 
any one of these things would have caused 
him to flare up and get angry. George 
could see that Charley felt these things very 
much, but still he kept his anger down. His 
fist wasn't clenched ; his eye didn't flash ; 
his tongue didn't scold as it used to do. 
Charley bore these trials patiently. And 
when George met his friend again, he said, — 

"It's true; Charley is a Christian. I 
know it, for Tve tried him" 

And then there is another way by which you 
can tell a real diamond from a counterfeit. 
If you put them in water, the diamond will 
still look bright and shine ; but the counterfeit, 
instead of shining, will look dark and dull. 

The Bible compares affliction or trial to 
water. And you can easily tell a true Chris- 
tian from a counterfeit by seeing how he acts 



96 BIBLE JEWELS. 

when affliction comes upon him. If you go 
through an orchard, in summer time, you 
will see some of the fruit dropping off, when- 
ever the tree is shaken by the wind. And if 
you examine the fruit that falls off, you will 
find it all spotted and unsound. The sound 
good fruit is not easily shaken off. In spite 
of all the shaking the tree gets from the 
wind, the good sound fruit hangs on, and 
only drops off in the autumn when it is ripe. 
Jesus himself said, in speaking of those who 
are not his real, true followers, that when 
trial or affliction comes upon them for his 
sake, they are offended, and turn back from 
following him. Like counterfeit diamonds 
they will not shine in water. 

But true Christians, like real diamonds, 
shine brightly even in the water. 

Let me tell you about a Christian who 
was put very deep in the water of affliction, 
and yet continued to shine to the very last. 
I refer to a negro, who was a slave, in one 
of the West India islands. He was afflicted 
with a terrible disease which the physicians 



THE DIAMOND. 97 

did not understand. It broke out in great 
sores, which spread over his body. His fin- 
gers fell off. It went into his head. He 
became blind, and his eyes seemed to rot 
away, and pieces of his skull came out. His 
feet were affected in the same way and rotted 
off. His sufferings were dreadful ; and yet 
he was not only patient under them, but 
often really happy and joyful in the thought 
of soon being with Jesus in that bright 
world where there could be no pain or 
suffering. Here was the real diamond, shining 
brightly in the water of affliction. 

w The last time I visited him," said his 
minister, "I could not bear to look at him. 
I only stood at the door of his chamber, and 
talked to him, and prayed with him." 

"How do you feel to-day, Bobert?" I 
asked. 

tf O massa ! " said he ; " me two eyes gone ; 
me two hands gone ; me two feet gone. No 
more but dis ole carcass left. O massa ! 
de pain sometimes too strong; but Jesus 
help me. Most over now." And so he con- 

7 



98 BIBLE JEWELS. 

tinned till he died. That was a true dia- 
mond. The shining in the water proved it. 

Now we have spoken of three things about 
diamonds, on account of which Christians may 
be compared to them. The first is their 
hardness. The second is their brightness. 
The third is the way to find out counterfeits. 

My dear young friends, pray earnestly 
that Jesus may give you new hearts, and 
make you true Christians. If you don't be- 
come real Christians you will only be like 
common pebble-stones. You will be good 
for nothing. But if you love Jesus, and be- 
come his servants, you will be his jewels, — 
real diamonds. You will shine beautifully 
here, and then shine in heaven forever when 
you die ! 



IV. 



IJUtbies. 



" For Wisdom is better than Rubies." — Peovebbs viii. 11. 



IV. 

" £ox Misbcm is btittx %n |lttbus." — IJrobwbs bin. U. 

This jewel is called a sardius in two places 
in the Bible. One of these places is in Exo- 
dus, the other is in the Revelation- In the 
former it is spoken of as being in the breast- 
plate of the Jewish high-priest. There it 
occupies the first place in the first row of 
jewels. And when St. John is giving us his 
beautiful description of the heavenly city, 
the New Jerusalem, an the last two chapters 
of the New Testament, he tells us that the 
foundations of this city were of precious 
stones. Then he mentions twelve different 
kinds of jewels as going to make up those 
foundations. The rub}' was the sixth among 
those foundation-stones. The ruby stood first 
on the breastplate of the high-priest, and sixth 
among the jewelled foundations of the heav- 
enly city, 

101 



102 BIBLE JEWELS. 

The name of this jewel comes from the Latin 
word, Ruber, which means red. And this 
name is given to the ruby because of its color. 
The ruby is a jewel of a blood-red color. 
The reason why the ruby was called sardius 
was because it used to be sometimes found 
near the city of Sardis, in Asia Minor. It 
is sometimes called a carbuncle. This means 
a little coal, and the ruby often shines like a 
little coal when it is burning and all in a glow. 
But this is enough about the name. 

The next thing for us to inquire about is, 
what the ruby represents ? We may regard 
it as representing love or charity. And then 
the question is, what is there about the ruby 
on account of which love or charity may be 
compared to it ? We shall find our answer 
to this question when we look at some of the 
things which people, in old times, used to 
think the ruby could do. There are three of 
these that we may speak of, on account of 
which the ruby may well be compared to 
love. 

And the first of those things which people 



RUBIES. 103 

used to think the ruby was good for, was to 

CURE SORROW. 

In former times people used to think that 
a ruby had the power of driving away sadness 
from their hearts, or of curing their sorrows. 
But this was not so. If you have ever so 
many of the finest rubies that anybody can 
find, they would not be able to give you any 
relief from pain, or any comfort in sorrow. 
But if you have the Bible ruby, the love of 
Jesus in your heart, there is nothing in the 
world that can cure sorrow, or relieve pain 
like that. 

"What do you want?" asked a gentleman 
one day of a poor man whom he was talking 
to, and whom he knew to be a Christian. 
"I only want three things," said he, "and I 
find them all in Jesus. I want to be in 
Christ, I want to be like Christ, I want to be 
with Christ." That man would find his love 
to Jesus a real Bible ruby. It would cure 
all his sorrows. If it did not take them 
away from him, it would comfort him under 
them. 



104 BIBLE JEWELS. 

Sometime ago a gentleman was conducting 
a meeting for boys in London. After he 
had spoken to them for some time, he said, 
"Now, boys, before I stop, I want all of you 
who feel really happy to hold up your hands." 
He looked for a moment, but there was only 
one hand held up. The owner of that hand 
was a stout lad about seventeen. He was a 
poor boy, dressed in coarse clothes, and all 
blackened with soot, for he was a chimney- 
sweeper. He had to work hard, and live on 
very plain food. Yet his hand went up in a 
moment, and his bright, beaming eye showed 
clearly that he understood what he was doing 
when he lifted up his hand. 

" And what is it that makes you happy ? " 
asked the gentleman. 

He answered at once with his voice, as 
clearly as he had done before with his 
hand, — 

"Loving Jesus, sir." 

He had this precious Bible ruby, and it 
cured his sorrow, or made him happy. 

Two girls were going to a neighboring 



RUBIES. 105 

town, each carrying on her head a heavy bas- 
ket of fruit to sell. One of them was mur- 
muring and fretting all the way, and com- 
plaining of the weight of her basket. The 
. other went along smiling and singing, and 
seeming to be very happy. At last the first 
got out of patience with her companion, and 
said, "How can you go on so merry and joy- 
ful? Your basket is as heavy as mine, and I 
know you are not one bit stronger than I am. 
I don't understand it." 

" Oh ! " said the other, " it's easy enough to 
understand. I have a certain little plant 
which I put on the top of my load, and it 
makes it so light I hardly feel it." 

" Indeed ; that must be a very precious lit- 
tle plant. I wish I could lighten my load 
with it. Where does it grow? Tell me. 
What do you call it?" 

" It grows wherever you plant it, and give 
it a chance to take root, and there's no know- 
ing the relief it gives. Its name is love, the 
love of Jesus. I have found out that Jesus 
loved me so much that he died to save my 



106 BIBLE JEWELS. 

soul. This makes me love him. I try to 
show my love by serving him. Whatever I 
do, whether it be carrying this basket or 
anything else, I think to myself, I am doing 
this for Jesus, to show that I love him ; and 
this makes everything easy and pleasant." 

That girl had found out the great secret of 
being happy. She had a ruby heart, a heart 
of love to Jesus ; and that cured her sorrows 
and made her burdens light. 

The stories I have just told you show us 
how a heart of love to Jesus will help to cure 
our own sorrows. But if we have this ruby 
in our hearts, it will help us to cure, or relieve, 
the sorrows of other people, too. 

One morning a wealthy farmer was kneel- 
ing down with his family at prayers. Among 
other things he seemed to pray with great 
earnestness that God would clothe the naked, 
feed the hungry, relieve the distressed, and 
comfort all who were in sorrow. 

A poor neighbor of his sat on the door- 
step listening to that prayer. He was in dis- 
tress and sorrow, and had come to ask relief. 



RUBIES. 107 

He was an honest, industrious, hard-working 
man, who was trying to support his family 
by his own labor. But for some time past he 
had been in trouble. His wife was sick, and, 
not beiug able to hire a nurse, he was obliged 
to nurse her himself. This, of course, pre- 
vented him from working, and earning any 
money. His family were in want of bread, 
and he had come to his rich Christian neigh- 
bor, to ask him for two bushels of wheat, 
promising to pay him out of the first money 
that he earned. 

As soon as the prayer was ended he went 
in and told what he wanted. But the 
wealthy farmer shook his head. He said he 
was sorry, but he had a large sum of money 
to raise, and he wanted all the wheat he had 
to get it with. The poor man left the house 
feeling very sad and sorrowful. The tears 
were trickling down his cheeks as he walked 
slowly away. 

As soon as the door was shut, the farmer's 
little boy said to him, — 

"Father, didn't 3^011 just ask God to clothe 



108 BIBLE JEWELS. 

the naked, feed the hungry, relieve the dis- 
tressed, and comfort the sorrowful?" 

"Yes, my son; but why do you ask that 
question ? " 

K Because, father, if I had all your wheat 
I'd help God to answer that prayer by giving 
some to our poor neighbor." 

In a moment the poor man was called back. 
The wheat was given to him, and he went 
home, feeling comforted. 

That rich farmer had let the ruby fall out 
of his heart ; but his little boy put it in again, 
and then he was able to cure or relieve the 
sorrow of his poor, afflicted neighbor. 

The first thing that people used to think 
that a ruby could do was to cure sorrow. 

The second thing they used to think it could 
do was to shine in the dark. 

They used to tell a great many stories 
about rubies and other jewels, being em- 
ployed, instead of lamps, in dark caverns, to 
give light, just as if they had power in them- 
selves to shine like so many little suns. But 
this was a mistake. If you carry a ruby, or 



RUBIES. 1C9 

a diamond, or any other natural jewel, into a 
room that is entirely dark it won't shine at 
all. You may lay it down by the side of a 
piece of coal, and you could not tell one from 
the other by the looks of them. 

But it is different with the Bible ruby. 
Real love to anybody, and especially the love 
of Jesus, — and this is what we compare the 
ruby to, — will shine in the dark. And when 
we speak of love shining in the dark, we 
mean that it will give us help and comfort in 
trouble. It will make us able to do and 
suffer things that we never could do without 
it. The Bible tells us that " many waters 
cannot quench " love. Waters here mean 
troubles, or afflictions ; and when w T e hear 
about people bearing their troubles bravely, 
either out of love to Jesus, or love to any- 
body else, then we see a Bible ruby shining 
in the dark. 

A little boy six years old got his leg broke, 
and was carried home on a litter. His poor 
mother, who had long been sick, and was 
confined to bed, was very much distressed 



110 BIBLE JEWELS. 

when she knew of it. She tried to get up, 
but fainted, and had to be put to bed again. 

The injury done to the little boy was very 
great, and when the doctors came to set his 
broken limb and dress his wounds, he suf- 
fered a great deal of pain. But during the 
whole operation he never uttered a single 
cry. All the persons present were surprised 
at this, and one of them asked him if he did 
not suffer much. 

"Oh, very much," said he, gently; "but I 
was so afraid of giving pain to mother that I 
tried to keep from crying." 

That little fellow had a ruby heart, and 
there we see it shining in the dark. 

There is a story told of a certain king of 
Lydia, in old times, whose name was Croesus. 
He was supposed to be the richest king in 
the world at that day, and this has given rise 

to the common saying, " as rich as Croesus." 

* 

But he had the misfortune to have a son who 
was dumb, or unable to speak. His child- 
hood and boyhood had passed in the splendid 
court of his father. But during all those 



RUBIES. Ill 

years he had never spoken one word. Then 
dreadful troubles came on his father and the 
country over which he reigned. The Persians 
were his enemies. They were very powerful. 
They defeated the army of Croesus and took 
him prisoner, together with his unfortunate 
son. The Persian soldiers were plundering 
the city. One of them was just going to kill 
the king, not knowing who he was. His poor 
son saw what that soldier was about to do. 
The thought of it was more than he could 
bear. He loved his father with a very strong 
love. That love did for him then what all 
the skill of the physicians had never been able 
to do. In his effort to save his father, it 
broke the string which had tied his tongue, 
and he cried out, " Don't kill him ! That is 
the king ! " That young prince had a ruby 
heart, aud here we see his ruby shining in the 
dark. 

Not long ago a gentleman was walking 
down Market Street. As he passed along in 
front of one of the stores he saw a man taking 
packages of dry goods from a box which had 



112 BIBLE JEWELS. 

just been opened. The son of this man was 
standing by, with his arms spread out to hold 
the packages which his father was taking out 
of the box. A little fellow, the friend and 
playmate of the boy, was standing near, look- 
ing on. Presently, he thought the boy's load 
was getting too heavy, and he said, •■ — 

"Johnny, don't you think you've got as 
much as you can carry ? " 

"Never mind," said Johnny, in a pleasant, 
cheerful voice ; " father knows how much I 
can carry." 

How beautiful that was ! Johnny had a 
ruby heart towards his father. He loved him, 
and trusted him ; and when we think of him, 
he seems like a ruby shining in the dark. 
That is just the way we ought to feel towards 
our Father in heaven. The Bible tells us 
that he w considers our trouble." He knows 
how much we can bear, a great deal better 
than Johnny's father knew this about him. 
If Johnny's load had happened to get too 
heavy for him, his father was not able, in a 
moment, to make him strong enough to bear 



RUBIES. 113 

it. But our heavenly Father can do this, and 
he has promised to do it. He says in one 
place in the Bible, — "As thy day, so shall 
thy strength be" (Deut. xxxiii. 25). This 
means that whatever load he puts upon us, 
He will always help us to carry it. Let each 
of us think of Johnny's words, — "Father 
knows how much I can carry." Let us try 
to have a ruby heart of love and confidence 
towards our Father in heaven, and then when 
trouble comes upon us we shall find that our 
ruby will shine in the dark. The second 
thing that people used to think a ruby could 
do was to shine in the dark. 

The third thing that people used to think a 
ruby was good for was to keep them fkom 

HARM. 

People used to carry a ruby about them as 
a sort of charm. They thought it had some 
secret power to ward off danger. It was just 
the same kind of feeling that the heathen in 
Africa have, when they carry greegrees round 
their necks, or put them up in their houses to 
protect themselves from what they call the 

8 



114 BIBLE JEWELS. 

witches. More than a thousand years ago, 
there was a great king called Charlemagne, 
or Charles the Great. He was King of 
France and Emperor of Germany. He was 
a great soldier, and gained a great many vic- 
tories. He used to wear one of these jewels 
round his neck, and he never would go into 
battle without it. He thought it kept him 
from being hurt. And when he died he 
ordered it to be buried with him. It is said 
that jewel remained in Charlemagne's coffin 
till the time of Napoleon Bonaparte, and that 
he took it and wore it till towards the latter 
part of his life, when he gave it away. 

But no common ruby has any power to 
protect people from harm. It is only the 
Bible ruby that can do this. If we have a 
ruby heart towards God, — that is, if we love 
him and trust him, — it will be like a charm 
that we shall carry about us, and which will 
keep us from harm. There is one sweet pas- 
sage in the Psalms which proves this. It is 
Ps. xci. 14. Here God says of every true 
Christian, — "Because he has set his love 



RUBIES. 115 

upon nie, therefore will I deliver him." Here 
you see how God promises that a ruby 
heart of love towards hiui shall really be 
like a charm to keep his people from danger. 
David could understand the meaning of that 
promise very well. When he was a young 
man, for ten long years Saul, the King of 
Israel, was trying to kill him. David was a 
poor man then, and Saul used to chase him 
all over the country. He used to go after 
him with a whole army. Sometimes he tried 
to catch him when he was shut up in a walled 
town. Sometimes he would hear that he 
was in a particular cave, in the side of a 
mountain, and he would get his army to sur- 
round the whole mountain, and feel sure that 
he should get him. But he never could 
do it. God's promise was fulfilled to David : 
" Because he hath set his love upon me there- 
fore will I deliver him." David had a ruby 
heart, and it was like a charm to him ; it kept 
him from harm. 

The same was true of Martin Luther, who 
brought about the Reformation, more than 



116 BIBLE JEWELS. 

three hundred years ago. The Pope of 
Eome wanted to have him put to death. 
And Charles the Fifth, the Emperor of Ger- 
many, the most powerful monarch in the 
world at that time, wanted to have Luther 
killed, too. Those two great men tried all 
they could to kill Luther; but they never 
could do it. Luther had set his love upon 
God ; therefore he delivered him. Luther had 
a ruby heart of love towards God, and this 
was like a charm to keep him from being hurt. 

And God is taking care of his people who 
love him, at all times, and in many different 
ways. 

I was reading lately about a missionary in 
India, who had a ruby heart of love towards 
God, and of the way in which this acted like 
a charm to keep him from being hurt. 
He was preaching one day to a crowd of 
people near a heathen temple. Not far from 
where the missionary stood one of the 
priests of the temple had a large white 
elephant, which the Hindoos look upon as a 
sacred animal, and to which they are in the 



RUBIES. 117 

habit of making offerings. The voice of the 
missionary, preaching about Jesus, drew the 
attention of the crowd towards him. The 
priest, with his elephant, was left almost 
alone. He thought he should not get much 
money that day, and this made him angry. 
So he determined to let the elephant loose 
upon the missionary, so that he would either 
be driven away or trampled to death. The 
huge beast moved towards him ; but on his 
wa}' he broke off a great branch of a tree as 
though he needed a weapon, and then he 
hastened on towards the missionary. Some 
of his friends who stood near urged him to 
go away. He said to them, — "Remember 
Daniel in the lion's den, and don't be afraid." 
Then he went on preaching. The Hin- 
doos, who were standing round, watched the 
elephant, expecting to see him strike the mis- 
sionary to the earth. They were greatly as- 
tonished when they saw the animal walk up to 
where the missionary stood, quietly lay down 
the branch at his feet, and go away without 
offering to do him the slightest injury. He 



118 BIBLE JEWELS. 

stepped on to the branch which the elephant 
had brought him. This was like a platform 
for him to stand on, so that as he went on 
preaching he could be seen and heard better 
than before. When the priest saw this, he 
was still more angry. He directed the 
elephant to him again ; but he refused to go. 
The missionary then raised his finger, and 
said to the priest, — w You want your ele- 
phant to kill me : take care lest God should 
turn his rage against yourself." This made 
the priest more angry than ever. He re- 
solved that the missionary should be killed 
before all the people. He ordered the ele- 
phant again to kill him. He stormed at him, 
and even struck him to make him go. But 
this made the elephant angry. He was not 
used to be treated in that way ; instead, 
therefore, of rushing on the missionary, he 
turned quickly round, threw the priest upon 
the ground, and trampled him to death with 
his broad, heavy feet. Here you see how the 
God, on whom the missionary had set his 
love, delivered him. That missionary had a 



RUBIES. 119 

ruby heart of love to God. This acted like a 
charm upon him. It kept him from harm. 

And now, before closing, I want to show 
you that when boys and girls have ruby 
hearts, so as to be loving, and gentle, and 
kind to all about them, it will act like a charm 
to keep them from getting hurt. 

Johnny Curtis and his sister Mary lived in 
a quiet village in New England. There was 
an old drunkard in that village, whom most 
of the children were very fond of teasing. 
He had formerly been a very wealthy man, 
and used to ride about in a beautiful carriage. 
But he took to drinking, and this ruined him, 
as it will do every one who indulges in it. 
He had lost all his property, and had become 
a poor, miserable drunkard. He used to be 
known as Captain Nicholas Beers. But now 
the boys used to run after him, and call him 
w Old Nick." One day little Mary Curtis came 
home from school before her brother. Soon 
after she came in, her mother said, — 

w I wish Johnny would come in ; I want 
to send him out to get me a skein of blue 



120 BIBLE JEWELS. 

silk to finish Lotty's hood with. Mary, my 
dear, look out of the window and see if he 
is coming." 

"Can't I go, ma?" said Mary, " it's early 
yet, and I'll hurry back quickly." 

"No, my dear, not on any account; for 
Capt. Beers, or * Old Nick,' as the boys call 
him, has been reeling about the village all the 
afternoon, with a troop of rude boys about 
him. He is very apt to throw stones, or any- 
thing he can lay his hand on when he is 
drunk, and he might hurt you." 

"If that is all you are afraid of, ma, you 
had better let me go, for Capt. Beers won't 
touch me ; he is never cross to Johnny or me. 
He is only cross to those who tease him. I 
always speak kindly to him, and say, ? Good- 
morning, Capt. Beers,' — and he says, ' Good- 
morning, Miss Curtis.' One day, he walked 
all the way to school with me, and talked as 
pleasantly as anybody. Miss Bruce, our 
teacher, says I have a secret charm which 
keeps him from hurting me." 

" I'm glad to hear it, Mary. How did Miss 



RUBIES. 121 

Bruce know about your 'secret charm,' as 3^ou 
call it?" 

" Why, mother, one day the poor old man 
was shaking his big stick around, and threat- 
ening to catch the first little boy that came 
near, and duck him in the mill-pond, because 
they had torn the brim off his old straw hat. 
The boys were running up to him as near as 
they dared, and calling out, ? Hurrah for old 
Nick.' ? Three cheers for old Nick, president 
of the Temperance Society.' The more they 
hallooed, the more angry he looked. I saw 
him, and began to cry, for I couldn't get home 
to dinner without passing right by him. Miss 
Bruce saw us and called us back, and said, 
'Now, John and Mary, don't cry or be fright- 
ened ; I'll teach you a secret charm, that will 
keep the old man from hurting you. Walk 
slowly along, and look him right in the face, 
and say, f Good morning, Capt. Beers.' I 
trembled like a leaf when we came near him, 
and couldn't speak a word, but Johnny spoke 
up loud, just as Miss Bruce told him. In- 
stead of hurting us, he said, ' You're nice, 



122 BIBLE JEWELS. 

civil children ; you aint the ones I'm after. 
I was so pleased when we got safe by ! and, 
from that time, I've not been afraid at all. I 
always speak pleasantly to him, and so he does 
to me. Now, mother, mayn't I go for the 
silk?" 

w Yes, dear, I'm not afraid to trust you, 
now I know about that charm." 

Mary put her bonnet on to go to the store. 
She was almost afraid when she came in sight 
of the old drunkard. He was standing on 
the steps of the store. His face was red and 
angry ; his hat was off, and his gray locks 
were blowing in the wind, while his hand held 
a stick, which he was brandishing wildly in 
the air. The boys had been teasing him till 
he was almost crazy. But Mary took cour- 
age. She knew how much her mother wanted 
the silk, and that it would be too late when 
Johnny came back from driving the cows 
from pasture ; so, choking down her fears, 
she said, "Good afternoon, Capt. Beers." 
w Good afternoon," he said, and tried to make 
her a bow. When he saw her coming back 



RUBIES. 123 

from the store, he said, so that all the rude 
boys could hear him, — 

" Make way for little Miss Curtiss ! She's 
a lady, — and so was her mother before her." 

That little girl had a ruby heart, — a lov- 
ing, gentle heart, — and it was a charm that 
kept her from being hurt. 

Now we have spoken of three things which 
people used to think that the ruby could do, 
but which we know that the Bible ruby can 
do. The first is to cure sorrow. The second 
is to shine in the dark. The third is to keep 
us from harm. 

Let us all pray to God to give us ruby 
hearts. Let us ask him to fill our hearts 
with love to him, and love to all about us; 
and then we shall have this Bible ruby. It 
will cure our sorrows. It will shine in the 
dark. It will keep us from harm. 



V. 

r An Amethyst." — Exodus xxviii. 19. 



T. 

This was the ninth jewel on the breastplate 
of the Jewish high-priest, or the last jewel in 
the third row. In the foundations of the 
heavenly Jerusalem, it w T as the last of the 
twelve jewels spoken of. 

The amethyst is a very precious jewel, and 
very much admired. Its color is a mixture 
of blue and red. It is a rich purple, very 
much like the appearance of a bunch of ripe, 
dark-colored grapes. 

The name of this jewel comes from the 
Greek language, and it means not to intoxicate, 
or not to make drunk. The amethyst is the 
temperance jewel. The boys and girls, and 
men and women, who make clear, cold, 
sparkling water their principal drink, should 
take the amethyst as their favorite jewel. In 
old times people used to think that if they 

127 



128 BIBLE JEWELS. 

only had a cup made out of an amethyst to 
drink from, they never would get intoxicated. 
And if they only carried one of these jewels 
about them it would have the same effect. 
They thought the amethyst was a charm 
against intemperance, and a cure for it when 
men fell into this dreadful habit. What a 
blessed thing it would be if this were so ! 
Then this jewel would be worth its weight 
in gold, and ten times more than that. It 
would be the most precious and valuable 
of all the jewels. It would be worth more 
than the pearl, and the diamond, and the 
ruby, and the emerald, and the sapphire, 
all put together. If this were so, I would 
be willing to go to the very ends of the 
earth if I could only get enough of these 
precious jewels to put one round the neck 
of every boy, and every girl too, in this 
school, and every man and woman in this 
church. That jewel would be the most use- 
ful and valuable thing that could be given to 
any one. Oh how I wish that the amethyst 
really had this power ! How I wish it were 



THE AMETHYST. 129 

able to keep people from becoming intemper- 
ate ! But it cannot do this. It is only the 
Bible jewel, which the amethyst stands for, 
that can do this. And what is the Bible 
jew r el that may be compared to the amethyst ? 
It is thenar of God. This is the real tem- 
perance jewel. 

And when I speak of the fear of God, I 
don't mean that we should be afraid of God, 
as a slave is afraid of his overseer, who stands 
by with a w r hip in hand, ready to lash him 
the moment he stops working. I mean that 
we should feel towards God just as a loving 
child feels towards an affectionate parent, or 
kind friend, when he would almost rather die 
than do anything that that parent or friend 
would not like to have him do. This is a 
sweet, loving, pleasant feeling. It makes the 
person that has it very happy. It is the Bible 
jewel that will keep us from a great many 
evils, and especially from the terrible evil of 
intemperance. 

I wish to speak of three ways in which this 
Bible jewel — the true amethyst — the fear of 
9 



130 BIBLE JEWELS. 

God — will be a temperance jewel to us. In the 
first place it ivill keep us from learning to 

DRINK. 

And when we speak of drinking, in connec- 
tion with the subject of temperance, we do 
not mean drinking water, or milk, or tea and 
coffee, but liquors that intoxicate people, or 
make them drunk. And people always have 
to learn to drink liquors of this kind. Things 
that are really good for us, like water and 
milk, God has made pleasant to our taste. 
We don't have to learn to drink them. But 
it is different with the liquors that make 
people drunk; such as brandy, and rum, and 
even wine. You hardly ever find anybody 
who likes these at first. Persons have to 
learn to drink them. It takes them some 
time to get into the habit of drinking them 
before they really like them. 

Now, if we have this Bible jewel, the true 
amethyst, or the fear of God, it will keep us 
from doing anything that God does not like 
to have us do. But do you think God likes 
to have us do anything that will harm, 



THE AMETHYST. 131 

either ourselves or others ? No ; surely 
riot. And yet there is no one way in which 
we can possibly do so much harm to our- 
selves, or to others, as by becoming intoxi- 
cated, or by getting drunk. 

Some years ago there was a very celebrated 
judge in England, known as Chief Justice 
Hale. He had been engaged a long time 
in trying people in court, for all sorts of 
crimes. And he said, one day, that of all 
the persons he had tried for murder, for rob- 
bery, and every kind of wickedness, four 
cases out of every five had been caused by 
intemperance. And if you and I should go 
to our State prison, and visit the prisoners in 
their cells, and ask what it was that brought 
them there, I dare say we should find that at 
least four out of every five had been brought 
there by intemperance. 

fr What is whiskey bringing ? " asked a dealer 
in this article one day. He meant to ask, 
how much is it selling for? 

A gentleman who heard the question took 
it in a different sense from that. 



132 BIBLE JEWELS. 

Wf What is whiskey bringing? ' do you ask? 
I'll tell you. It is bringing men to prison, 
and to the gallows, and it is bringing women 
and children to poverty and want ! " 

There never was a truer answer than that. 

A physician was walking along a road in the 
country, one day. An old man met him, who 
had a bottle of whiskey sticking out of his 
coat-pocket. 

"Is this the way to the poor-house, sir?" 
asked the old man, pointing in the direction 
in which he was walking. 

" No, sir," said the physician, w but this 
is," laying his hand on the bottle of whiskey. 

Now, let me tell you what intemperance is 
doing in this country every year. Try and 
remember some of these figures, for they are 
very terrible. 

One hundred thousand men and women are 
sent to prison every year by intemperance. 

Twenty thousand children are sent to the 
poor-house every year by intemperance. 

Three hundred murders are caused by in- 
temperance every year. 



THE AMETHYST. 133 

Two hundred thousand children are made 
orphans every year by this dreadful evil. 

You know we have lately had a dreadful 
civil war in this country. It lasted for just 
five years. During that war, out of the ar- 
mies connected with our Northern States, the 
number of men killed was about three hun- 
dred thousand. This took in those who fell 
in battle, and those who died from disease. 
Now, if we divide three hundred thousand by 
five, in order to find out how many men were 
killed every year by the war, we shall find 
that the number was sixty thousand. How 
dreadful to think that every year the war 
lasted it was destroying sixty thousand men ! 

But how many men do you suppose are 
killed by intemperance every year in this 
country? Why, sixty -Jive thousand! Only 
think that intemperance is killing every year 
five thousand people more than the war killed ! 

But then many of our brave soldiers who 
were killed in battle, or died in the hospitals, 
were truly Christian men. They died, and 
went to heaven. The war only destroyed their 



134 BIBLE JEWELS. 

bodies. It did not hurt their souls. But 
when intemperance kills men, it destroys the 
soul, as well as the body. The Bible tells us 
that w drunkards shall not inherit the king- 
dom of God" (1 Cor. vi. 10). Suppose that 
you and I could stand at some place where we 
could see this great army of sixty-five thou- 
sand drunkards go reeling down to death. 
We watch them as they pass. With their 
wretched, bloated faces, we see them stagger 
on, and drop into the grave. And suppose, 
at the same time, we could see their souls 
plunging into that dreadful place to which God 
tells us drunkards must go ; — - how terrible it 
would be ! Do you think that after seeing such 
a sight, we should ever be willing to learn to 
drink? Oh, no! We should want to take 
this Bible jewel, — this temperance gem — 
this amethyst, — the fear of God, and bind it 
on our hearts, that we might never learn to 
drink. 

There was a company of several sailors 
once on board a ship. Six of them had 
learned to drink, as sailors are so apt to do. 



THE AMETHYST. 135 

They would get drunk whenever they could. 
But the seventh man in that crew never would 
touch a drop of intoxicating liquor. One 
time the vessel in which they were sailing, 
was bound to Liverpool. The six drinking 
men agreed among themselves that when they 
got into port they would invite " cold-water 
Jack," as they called him, to a tavern with 
them, and make him drink for once at least. 

They arrived in Liverpool. They en- 
gaged a supper at a tavern, and invited Jack 
to go with them. He went. The supper 
passed off pleasantly. Then they began to 
drink their liquor. First one, and then an- 
other invited Jack to join them in drinking ; 
but he steadily declined. Then they all 
urged him together; but still be refused. 
Finally, they got angry and threatened to 
beat him, even to death, unless he would 
drink with them. 

" Shipmates," says he, H I'm in your power. 
What can one fellow do against six? But 
before you begin to do as you have threat- 
ened, hear what I have to say." They 



136 BIBLE JEWELS, 

agreed, and Jack went on to give this expla- 
nation of his conduct : 

"My father," said he, "was a drunkard. 
I remember, when I was a child, how he used 
to beat and abuse my mother, who was always 
affectionate and kind to us. One day, in 
winter, my mother sent me away on some 
business, which kept me from home till late 
at night. On my return, as I came near the 
house, I saw something lying on the snow, 
which looked like the figure of a man. I 
came nearer, and looked carefully at it, in the 
light of the moon, and you can imagine, 
perhaps, how I felt, when I found it to 
be the frozen body of my dead father. I 
was overcome with horror. I hastened 
home and told the dreadful tidings to my 
poor heart-broken mother. Our kind neigh- 
bors came in. They carried my dead father 
home. Preparations were made for the 
funeral. On the day of the funeral my 
mother took me, and the other children, into 
the room where the corpse was lying, to look 
upon our father's face for the last time. As 



THE AMETHYST. 137 

we stood there, weeping round that open 
coffin, she made us each solemnly promise, 
that, as long as we lived, we never would 
learn to drink intoxicating liquor. My 
mother is dead, and gone to heaven. I 
have always looked on the promise I then 
made as a sacred thing. I have sailed round 
the world; but in storm or in calm, in win- 
ter or summer, I have never yet broken it. 
Boys, would you have me drink, and break 
that promise to my dear, dead mother, now ? " 

"No, no, no!" was uttered by every 
voice, and the tears which flowed down their 
weather-beaten faees showed how much they 
felt what he had said. 

That faithful mother put the temperance 
jewel, the true amethyst, round the necks of her 
children, as they stood by their father's coffin, 
and we see how it kept them from learning to 
drink anything that would intoxicate them. 

You know what a dreadful thing it is to be 
plunged over the falls of Niagara. Nobody 
can go over there without being killed. 
And if, when you are visiting the falls, you 



138 BIBLE JEWELS. 

should see a person sailing in a boat, on the 
river above the falls, to see how near he 
could go without being drawn over, you 
would think that a very dangerous position 
to be in. And so it would be. So long as 
a person is on the river above Niagara he is 
always in danger of being drawn over. But 
if he keep out of the river, he is free from 
danger. JVbw, to fall into intemperance is 
worse than going over Niagara. And learn- 
ing to drink intoxicating liquor is like sail- 
ing on the river above Niagara. You are in 
danger at any time of being drawn over. 

I was reading lately about a merchant who 
lived in Scotland. He was a good man, and 
a member of the church. But he thought he 
could drink when he wanted to do so, without 
getting drunk. He was willing to sail in the 
river above the falls, but he never intended 
to go over. One day, a person with whom he 
had some business invited him to a hotel, 
to settle their business. They sat and 
talked, and drank, a long while. Before he 
knew it, this merchant became drunk. He 



THE AMETHYST. 139 

never had been so before in all his life. He 
went home in that state. He quarrelled with 
his w T ife, and not knowing what he did, he 
struck her a blow on the head, which knocked 
her down and killed her. 

He was taken to prison, tried, found 
guilty, and condemned to be hung. Once 
drunk, and the consequence was his wife was 
killed, and he was brought to the gallows. 
I think you will all agree with me that that 
was worse than going over the falls of Niag- 
ara. But if that man had not allowed him- 
self to sail on the river above the falls, he 
never would have been carried over. I 
mean, that is, if he had not allowed himself 
to get into the habit of drinking, he never 
would have been found even once drunk, 
and have gone home to kill his wife. If he 
had worn this temperance jewel it would 
have kept him from learning to drink. And 
then, instead of ending his days on the gal- 
lows, he might have died at home, a happy 
Christian death. 

It is remarkable that though men, who can 



140 BIBLE JEWELS. 

think and reason for themselves, are so ready 
to learn to drink intoxicating liquors, the 
dumb animals — brutes, as we call them — 
never can be taught to do it. 

I was reading lately of a Welshman who 
had got into the habit of going to a tavern in 
his neighborhood, and getting drunk there. 
He had a tame goat that was a great pet with 
him, and that used to follow him about wher- 
ever he went. One day he thought it would 
be nice fun to take his pet, Billy, to the tavern 
with him, and make him drunk. So he took 
him there. He offered him some liquor. Billy 
smelled it and turned away his head at once. 
He wouldn't touch it. Then the man took 
hold of him, and held his mouth open, and 
got somebody to pour the liquor down his 
throat. Well, it made Billy drunk, and he 
behaved like a fool, just as every two-legged 
beast does, when in the same state. But, 
mind now ; the next day the Welshman went 
out, and Billy went with him as usual. He 
followed him till he saw him enter the tavern. 
Then he stopped. The man called him, and 



THE AMETHYST. 141 

coaxed him ; he threatened him, and beat 
him ; still Billy stood firm. He wouldn't go 
a step in that direction. He had had enough 
of liquor. He wouldn't learn to be a drunk- 
ard. It seems as if God had put this tem- 
perance jewel, the amethyst, round the necks 
of all the dumb animals. And it acts like a 
charm upon them. They won't learn to 
drink intoxicating liquors. Neither the horse, 
nor the cow, nor the dog, nor the cat, nor 
the sheep, nor the pig, nor even the stupid 
donkey will ever learn to get drunk. 

This Bible gem, the fear of God, is the 
true amethyst — the temperance jewel — in 
the first place, because it will keep us from 
learning to drink. 

It is so, in the second place, because it will 

KEEP US FROM TEMPTING OTHERS TO DRINK. 

It is impossible to tell how much harm is 
done in this way. God has tried to stop this 
evil by speaking about it in the Bible. He 
says in one place, "Woe unto him that 
giveth his neighbor drink, that putteth the 
bottle to him" (Hab. ii. 15). Now, if you 



142 BIBLE JEWELS. 

put this temperance jewel round your necks, 
and keep it there, you will never learn to 
drink intoxicating liquors yourself, and you 
will never ask, or invite, or tempt anybody 
else to do so. 

And I don't want the girls to think that 
this subject belongs only to the boys. It is 
not so. It belongs to the girls just as much. 
There are a great many young ladies, nowa- 
days, who learn to drink wines and cordials ; 
yes 9 and who tempt young men to do so! 
This is dreadful. When I see a young lady 
in company sipping wine or cordial, and 
tempting some young man to do the same, it 
makes my blood run cold, and the flesh fairly 
creep upon my Jbones with horror. I think 
of that terrible K woe to him that giveth his 
neighbor drink." The " woe " belongs as 
much to a woman as to a man ; to her as well 
as to him. There is a great deal of drink- 
ing, and a great deal of drunkenness, now 
among the women of this country. I don't 
mean the poor women only, but the rich and 
the fashionable. I saw it stated lately in a 



THE AMETHYST. 143 

newspaper that in the city of Brooklyn there 
are twenty thousand female drunkards. 

I met with an illustration of this habit 
among ladies, the other day. There was 
a well-known physician in one of our large 
cities, who had allowed himself to get into the 
habit of drinking too much. Now, of all men 
in the world, next to ministers, doctors should 
be most careful to keep sober. One day 
this doctor had been drinking pretty freely. 
When he went home at noon he found on his 
slate a request for him to come and see Mrs. 

B , one of his patients — a rich and 

fashionable lady. He took his dinner, and 
drank some more liquor, and then went to 
see the lady. She was in bed. He sat down 
by the bedside, took out his watch, and put- 
ting the finger of his right hand on the lady's 
wrist, he began to count her pulse. One — 
two — three; then he got confused, and be- 
gan again : One — two — three — four ; con- 
fused, and tried again : One, — two, — three 
— four — five ; but he couldn't go on. So he 
put up his watch, and said to himself, in a 



144 BIBLE JEWELS. 

whisper, which he did not intend the lady 
should hear, " Drunk, I declare ! " Then 
he told the lady to keep in bed, and take 
some hot lemonade, to throw her into a per- 
spiration, and he would see her again in the 
morning. In the evening he received a few 
lines from the lady, written in this way : — 

w Dear Doctor, — I am dreadfully morti- 
fied to think you should have found me in 
such a state when you called this afternoon. 
Please accept the enclosed fee for your trou- 
ble — (a hundred dollar note) — and pray 
don't, for the world, say a word to any one 
about my condition." 

That lady had been drinking. And when 
the doctor whispered, "Drunk, I declare," — 
meaning himself, — she thought he was saying 
it of her. The Doctor was too drunk to see 
what was the matter with his patient ; and the 
patient was too drunk to see that the doctor 
was in the same state. 

It is a dreadful thing to tempt any one to 



THE AMETHYST. 145 

drink intoxicating liquors, and I want you all 
to feel this so strongly that, as long as you 
live, you will never allow yourselves to do it. 
There are two ways in which we may be guilty 
of this sin ; one is by example, the other is 
by invitation or persuasion. 

Let me give you an illustration of the first 
of the two ways in which this evil may be 
done. It is one that took place in this city 
some years ago. 

There was a young man here, who was a 
clerk in a store. He was H the only son of 
his mother, and she was a widow." He was 
a good, moral young man, and went regularly 
to church with his mother, though he was not 
a Christian. His mother had tried faithfully 
to warn him against the terrible evils of in- 
temperance, and out of love to her he had 
always refused to drink wine, or intoxicating 
liquor, when he was invited to do so. His 
young friends often joked with him, and said, 
it wasn't manly to refuse to drink with them. 
They didn't want him to become a drunkard, 
10 



146 BIBLE JEWELS. 

but they thought a man might take a little 
without doing himself any harm. 

But he had resisted all their entreaties. 
He felt as if he were safe in not drinking at 
all, while he couldn't tell what might follow 
if he once began to drink. 

But, after awhile, he got tired of opposing 
the constant invitations of his friends. He 
was beginning to think that he might drink 
one glass in an evening without hurting him- 
self. 

Just at this time he was invited to a large 
party. The minister of the church which he 

attended, the Rev. Dr. , was to be there. 

He knew his friends would urge him again to 
drink, and he found it hard to make up his 
mind what to do. At last he settled it in this 
way. He said to himself, w Til watch my 

minister, Dr. , to see what he does, and 

I'll follow his example. If he refuses to 
drink, I'll refuse too. But I know he is a 
good Christian ; and if I see him drink, it 
can't be very wrong, and I think I shall be 
safe in doing as he does." 



THE AMETHYST. 147 

Well, the evening came. The company 
assembled. It was a bright and cheerful 
scene. They were having a very pleasant 
time. After awhile they were invited to the 
dining-room for refreshments. The table was 
covered with good things, among which were 
bottles of wine and brandy. That young 
man kept his eye fixed on his minister. Pres- 
ently he saw him go up to the table, pour out 
a glass of wine and drink it off, as though it 
were something very good and harmless. 
Soon after, one of the young man's friends 
came up and invited him to drink. He drank 
his first glass of wine that night. Another 
followed it, and then another. He went stag- 
gering home from that party a drunken man. 
He kept on drinking from that time. And 
what was the result? He lost his situation. 
He ruined his character. He broke his poor 
mother's heart. He went down to a drunk- 
ard's grave. How sad ! 

And who killed that young man and broke 
his mother's heart ? That minister of the gos- 
pel did it. For all the gold of California I 



148 BIBLE JEWELS. 

would not have been in his place ! How little 
he thought of the watchful eyes that were 
looking at him, as he stood up, and drank off 
his wine in the midst of that brilliant com- 
pany ! How little he knew of the tremen- 
dous evil that was to follow from the influ- 
ence of his example in that one act ! Ah ! 
if he had only taken this temperance jewel, — 
the amethyst, — the fear of God, — to the 
party that night, it would have kept him from 
tempting that young man to drink by his ex- 
ample. 

Now, my dear young friends, I want you 
all to get this temperance jewel — the ame- 
thyst — the fear of God, and carry it with 
you, wherever you go. Intemperance will 
ruin your health, and run away with your 
money. But this precious temperance jewel 
will act like a charm to preserve them both. 

How it does this, was very well told by an 
honest Dutchman. He had felt the bad ef- 
fects of intemperance on himself, and then 
gave it up. One of his friends asked him 
why he did so ? 



THE AMETHYST. 149 

w I vill tell you how it vas," said he. "I 
puts mine hand on mine head, und dere vas 
von pig bain. Den I puts mine hand on 
mine pody, und dere vas anoder. Dere vas 
ver much bains in all mine pody. Den I puts 
mine hand in mine pocket, und dere vas 
noting. So I jined mit de temperance. Und 
now dere vas no more bain in mine head. 
De bains in mine pody vas all gone away. I 
puts my hand in mine pocket, and dere vas 
dwenty taullers. So I vill shtay mit de tem- 
perance." 

That is all true. We have spoken of two 
good things that this temperance jewel will 
do for us. It icill keep us from learning to 
drink; and it will keep us from tempting oth- 
er's to drink. 

And now, if you want to be healthy and 
cheerful ; if you want to be good and useful, 
ask God to put his fear in your hearts, that is 
the Bible amethyst, the temperance jewel, 
and it will be better for you than thousands 
of gold and silver. 



VI, 

ye &me%si 

"An Amethyst." — Exodus xxviii. 19. 



YL 

"gin gmrf^t." — fetors *xbui. Iff. 

In our last sermon I said that the amethyst 
is a temperance jewel. I said, too, we would 
consider it as representing the fear of God. 
This is the Bible jewel that most nearly re- 
sembles the amethyst. We spoke then of 
two reasons why it may be called a temper- 
ance jewel. One is that it will keep us from 
learning to drink; the other is that it ivill 
keep us from tempting others to drink. Then 
we spoke of one way in which we might 
tempt people to drink, viz., by example. 

But there is another way in which this is 
done, and that is by invitation, or persuasion. 
It is a dreadful thing to tempt a person to 
drink anything that will intoxicate. It seems 
like a little thing when you persuade a person 
to take a glass of wine. But nobody can tell 

153 



154 BIBLE JEWELS. 

how much harm may be done by just one 
glass of wine, or other liquor. 

Some years ago, Louis Philippe was the 
King of France. His oldest son was the 
Duke of Orleans. He was a tall, handsome, 
splendid-looking young man. And he was 
just as good as he was handsome. He was 
intelligent, affectionate, kind, noble, gener- 
ous, and seemed to have every good quality 
you would expect to find in a young prince. 
He was the pride of his family, and the hope 
of his country ; for it was expected that he 
would be the King of France when his father 
died. 

He had command of a regiment in the 
French army. He had been ordered to join 
his regiment. Before he left Paris to do this, 
he invited some friends to his house that he 
might say good-by to them. They drank 
some wine together. The duke had never 
been intoxicated. He knew how much he 
could take with safety, and then he always 
stopped ; and refused to take any more. He 
did so on this occasion. But one of his 






H 1 



'»52- i ■ ' 







THE AMETHYST. 155 

friends invited him to drink "just one glass 
more." The duke said no. His friend urged 
him so much that at last he yielded, and took 
that "one glass more." Now, mark the con- 
sequence. It did not make him drunk, but 
it confused him, and made him feel uncom- 
fortable. He said good-by to his friends, 
got into his carriage, and rode off. 

He still felt the effect of that one glass of 
wine. Soon the carriage stopped, at the place 
where he was to get out. He opened the 
door and jumped from the steps. He hardly 
knew what he was doing. But for that one 
glass of wine he would probably have alighted 
fairly on his feet. But he was confused. He 
stumbled. He fell. His head struck the 
pavement. He was taken up bleeding, and 
senseless, and very soon he died. For one 
glass of wine that noble Duke of Orleans lost 
his life, the throne of France, and property 
worth a hundred millions of dollars. How 
badly that friend of the duke must have felt 
who urged him to drink that " one glass of 
wine ! " If he had only had this Bible jewel, 



156 BIBLE JEWELS. 

— the amethyst, — the fear of God, — about 
him, it would have kept him from tempting 
that young man to drink, by invitation or 
persuasion, 

A very sad case occurred near this city, 
some years ago, which shows the terrible evil 
that may follow from tempting a person to 
drink, by persuading and urging him to do 
so. 

There was an excellent physician, not far 
from here, very well known, and whose 
family was very respectable. He had allowed 
himself to get into the habit of drinking till 
he was intoxicated. It was beginning to in- 
jure his health and his practice, and was the 
cause of great distress to his family and 
friends. A friend, whom he loved very much, 
spoke very plainly to him about the terrible 
consequences that must follow, if he went on 
in this way. He saw the danger, and resolved 
to escape from it. He made up his mind at 
once to give up drinking anything that would 
intoxicate. He kept on in this good course 
for a while. But one day he was invited 



THE AMETHYST. 157 

out to a dinner party. Some of the gentle- 
men present, who knew what his habit of 
drinking used to be. and of the resolution 
he had made about it, had agreed together 
that, just for their amusement, they would 
try if they could not persuade him to drink 
again. It was a cruel, thoughtless thing to 
do. They would not have done it for the 
world, if they had only stopped a moment to 
consider what the result might be. 

Well, after dinner, while sitting round the 
table, they invited him to drink with them. 
First one would ask him, and then another, 
and another. But he steadily refused. At 
last they joined together and urged him to 
take "just one glass." He yielded. He took 
one glass. Then his old taste revived. He 
drank one glass after another till it seemed 
like fire on his brain. Presently he rose and 
left the room, leaving his friends all round 
the table. They thought he would soon come 
back ; but he didn't come. They were won- 
dering what had become of him, when they 
heard the report of a pistol in a room up- 



158 BIBLE JEWELS. 

stairs. They hastened towards the spot, — 
and what a sight they saw ! There lay the 
poor doctor, weltering in his blood. The 
drink had maddened him. He left the table, 
and blew his brains out. Oh, how terribly 
those gentlemen must have felt who had per- 
suaded him to drink ! 

If they had only had this precious jewel 
with them, they would not have tempted 
their friend to drink, and that sad result of 
his drinking would not have taken place ! 

Some years ago there was a remnant of 
the tribe of Indians called the Mohegans, 
living near Norwich in Connecticut. That 
tribe was one of the best of the Indian tribes. 
There had been a long line of kings or chiefs 
among them in a family called the Uncas. 
The last of those chiefs was named Zachary. 
He had learned from the white men the use 
of intoxicating liquor, the " fire-water " as the 
Indians called it, and become a great drunk- 
ard. But some kind friend had a serious 
talk with him about it. Zachary made up 
his mind that, by the help of God, the last of 



THE AMETHYST. 159 

his race should not die a drunkard. He re- 
solved to wear this temperance jewel, and 
drink no more intoxicating liquor. 

Every year, about election time, Zachary 
used to make a visit to Governor Trumbull, 
the governor of the State. One of the gov- 
ernor's boys had heard about the old Indian's 
story, and he thought he would try him, and 
see if he would stick to his temperance prin- 
ciples. So the next time Zachary came to 
his father's house, as they were sitting round 
the dinner-table, he poured out a glass of 
wine, and said, — 

* Zachary, this is excellent wine ; will you 
taste it?" 

The old man dropped his knife and fork, 
and leaned forward with a very stern look, 
his black eye, sparkling with anger, was fixed 
on the young man, — 

"John," said he, "do you know what you 
are doing? You are doing the devil's work, 
boy ; stop it ! I tell you I am an Indian ; 
you know I am. If I should drink one glass 
of that liquor I could not stop till I became 



160 BIBLE JEWELS, 

again the miserable, drunken wretch that I 
used to be. John, as long as you live, never 
tempt a man to break a good resolution." 

John Trumbull never forgot old Zaehary's 
short speech. He bound this temperance 
jewel round his neck that day, and made up 
his mind that he would never tempt any one 
to drink again. 

There is a very good story told about Vic- 
toria, the Queen of England. One day there 
was a large company of lords and ladies 
dining at the queen's table. One of the 
noblemen in the company was a strictly tem- 
perate man. Sitting next to him was the 
wife of a royal duke. While they were talk- 
ing together this lady invited him to take a 
glass of wine with her. He said, — 

"Excuse me, madam, but I never drink 
wine." 

The lady turned towards the queen, saying, 

w Please your majesty, here is Lord , 

who declines to drink wine at your majesty's 
table." 

This drew the attention of the whole com- 



THE AMETHYST. 161 

pany. Every one looked towards the queen, 
feeling curious to know what she would say 
to one who would drink nothing but cold 
water even at her table. The queen looked 
toward the temperance nobleman, and grace- 
fully bowed her head, while she said with a 
pleasant smile, — 

" No one is compelled to drink at my table." 

If we have the true amethyst, the Bible 
temperance jewel, the fear of God about us, 
it will keep us from tempting others to drink, 
either by example or by invitation. 

And then there is another reason why this 
Bible jewel, the fear of God, may be com- 
pared to the amethyst, — the true temperance 
jewel, — and that is, it will lead us to stop 
drinking, even when we have got into the 
habit of doing so. 

When the habit of drinking is once formed 
it becomes very strong. 

We read in the Bible the interesting story 
of Samson. He was the strongest man that 
ever lived. And, curiously enough, the Bi- 
ble tells us that this great strength lay in his 
11 



162 BIBLE JEWELS. 

hair. God had made a covenant with him 
that if he would let his hair grow, and never 
have it cut, his strength should continue. 
His hair had grown into very long locks, and 
the secret of his strength lay in. not having 
those locks cut. Samson kept this great 
secret to himself, and so long as he did this 
he was safe. 

But the Philistines were the enemies of 
Samson and the Israelites. They wanted 
very much to take him prisoner, because he 
had done them so much harm. But they 
could not do this unless they could manage 
in some way to take away his great strength 
from him. They tried very hard, therefore, to 
find out the secret of his strength, that they 
might take it away, and make him a prisoner. 
They tied his arms and legs with different 
kinds of ropes while he was asleep, hoping 
that this would overcome him. But as soon 
as he awoke he broke those ropes as easily 
as a giant would break a thread. At last he 
foolishly told them the secret about his hair. 
Then they came, while he was asleep, and cut 



THE AMETHYST. Ifi3 

off his locks and shaved his head. This took 
away his strength, and he became as weak as 
any other man. Then they made a prisoner 
of him, and put out his eyes. 

And the habit of drinking, when it is once 
formed, has a strength like that of Samson's. 
Men can no more overcome this habit, of 
themselves, than an infant can get away from 
the strong grasp of a giant. For a drunken 
man to sign the pledge, and say "I won't 
drink any more liquor, " when trusting to his 
own strength, is only like tying ropes round 
Samson's limbs, when his locks have not been 
cut off. As soon as he wakes, and stirs him- 
self, those ropes give w r ay like tow. We 
must get the help of God. We must get this 
amethyst, this Bible jewel, the grace of 
God in our hearts. This will cut off Sam- 
son's locks. Then his strength will be gone, 
and we can bind him, and keep him from 
doing any harm. Nothing but this temper- 
ance jewel will enable any one to break off 
from the habit of drinking. 

I w r as reading lately of a mechanic who had 



164 BIBLE JEWELS. 

become intemperate. Nearly all his wages 
were spent at the tavern. His family were 
left to get on in the best way they could. 
They were often in want of bread to eat, of 
clothing to put on, and of fuel to keep them 
warm. He was a first-rate workman, and 
could get excellent wages when he was sober. 
But now he seemed to be going to ruin. His 
employer used to reason with him about the 
folly of his conduct. His wife used to beg 
him, with tears in her eyes, for her sake, for 
the children's sake, and for his own sake, to 
give up drinking. He was often very much 
affected on these occasions ; would bitterly 
lament over his folly, and solemnly promise 
never to drink any more. He signed the 
temperance pledge several times. But when 
he got near the tavern, and among his old 
friends again, he forgot all, and drank away 
as hard as ever. His pledge and his prom- 
ises had no more power to bind him then, 
than the green withes and the new cords of 
the Philistines had to bind Samson, before 
his locks were cut off. 



THE AMETHYST. 165 

One night, when he was sober he went to 
church with his wife. He heard a very sol- 
emn sermon preached on the subject of the 
judgment. It made a great impression on 
his mind. It led him to pray earnestly to 
God. He became a Christian, and went reg- 
ularly to church with his wife. Then he 
signed the pledge again. He made new res- 
olutions against drinking. But he did not 
make them in his own strength now. He 
had the grace of God to help him. He had 
found the Bible amethyst, the true temper- 
ance jewel. He could meet his old friends, 
and pass by the tavern without stopping to 
drink. Samson was not only bound, but his 
long locks were cut off, and his strength was 
gone. This man had now the fear of God 
before his eyes. He had found the true ame- 
thyst, — the temperance jewel, — and it led 
him to stop drinking. His employer never 
went to church himself. He hated religion, 
and religious people very much. He tried 
to persuade the man to give up going to 
church. 



166 BIBLE JEWELS. 

"No, sir," said he, "that I will not do. 
You tried to make me a sober man when I 
was a miserable drunkard, but you couldn't 
do it. I tried to make myself sober; but 
the love of drink was too strong for me. I 
couldn't get away from it. But since I have 
been going to church, and have got the help 
of God's grace, I have been able to resist the 
temptation. And now would you have me 
give up the only thing that has saved me 
from being a drunkard? I can't do that." 

There was a man in England some years 
ago, who was a weaver. His name was 
Robert Jackson. He lived in a little manu- 
facturing village. He had a very good wife, 
who was a pious, excellent Christian. For 
some years after their marriage he was a 
steady, sober, industrious man ; and he and 
his wife lived very comfortably and happily 
together. But after a while he got acquainted 
with some bad men, who spent their evenings, 
and their wages at the tavern, and went home 
late at night drunk. They persuaded Robert 
to go with them. He became a drunkard, 



THE AMETHYST. 167 

too. Before, he had been a kind and gentle 
husband. He never used to speak a cross or 
angry word to his wife or children. But 
oh, how drinking changes poople ! Now, he 
would go home in a bad temper, and scold 
his w r ife, and swear at the children, so that 
instead of running to meet him, as they used 
to do, they were glad to creep away in a 
corner and hide themselves. 

Mrs. Jackson had tried all she could to 
get her husband to give up drinking. But it 
was all in vain. Nothing seemed to have 
any effect upon him. He was getting worse 
and worse. He spent nearly all his wages 
now at the tavern. He seldom took any 
money home. His poor, sorrowful wife 
worked almost night and day to get bread 
and decent clothing for her children. Every 
night, before they went to bed, she used to 
read a chapter in the Bible to her children 
and pray with them. And she always prayed 
for their poor father, too, that it might please 
God to lead him to quit drinking, and make 
him a sober man again. 



168 BIBLE JEWELS. 

One night they were sitting round the table 
as usual. Mrs. Jackson was reading the 
twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew, where it 
tells about Jesus coming to judgment, and 
gathering all nations before him and then 
separating them one from another, as a shep- 
herd divideth the sheep from the goats. She 
read on : " And he shall set the sheep on his 
right hand, but the goats on his left. Then 
shall he say unto them on the left hand, De- 
part, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared 
for the devil and his angels." Just as she 
began to read, her husband came home from 
the tavern. He came quietly into the entry 
and heard his wife reading. He knew it was 
the Bible, and he was not too drunk to know 
that he ought to be still while that was read. 
So he took his hat off, and stood there listen- 
ing till the reading and prayer were over. 
He had a little boy named Robbie, after him- 
self. He was between seven and eight years 
old. He had been very much interested in 
the chapter read that night. As his mother 
was closing the Bible, Eobbie said, — 



THE AMETHYST. 169 

"Mother, may I ask a question ?" 

"Certainly, my child," said she; "what 
is it?" 

"Will father be one of the goats on the 
left hand of Jesus when he comes to judg- 
ment?" 

Poor Mrs. Jackson could not answer that 
question. She burst into tears. Then they 
kneeled down to pray. And she prayed, oh, 
how earnestly ! for her poor husband, that he 
might stop drinking, and become a Christian, 
and not be found among the goats on the left 
hand of Jesus, at the last day. Before that 
prayer was over, Eobert was quite sober. 
What he had heard made him feel dreadfully. 
He cried like a child. As soon as they rose 
from their knees, he went into the room, 
threw his arms round his wife's neck, asked 
her to forgive him for all the sorrow he had 
caused her, and promised solemnly that by 
the help of God he never would get drunk 
any more. Then he kissed little Robbie, and 
the other children, and said he would try not 
to be among the goats when Jesus comes. 



170 BIBLE JEWELS. 

And the promise made that night he never 
broke. He prayed to God to help him ; and 
he did help him. He became a great tem- 
perance man, and persuaded a great many of 
his companions to give up drinking, too. 
He got this temperance jewel, — the amethyst, 
— the fear of God, that night, and fastened 
it round his neck, and the blessed result was 
it led him to stop drinking. 

Come with me now, and let us take a walk 
through one of our hospitals, at the close of 
the late war. It is full of wounded soldiers. 
There is one among these, that I want espe- 
cially to tell you about. There he lies on 
yonder cot-bed. He is a tall, strong fellow. 
Here comes the doctor along. Let us look, 
and listen. 

"Well, my boy," says the doctor, "Tin 
told they call you < Old Battles/ Is that so ? " 

" Yes, sir," said he. 

H And they say you are the bravest man in 
the regiment, too." 

" So they say," he replied. 

"Old Battles" was one of the boldest, and 



THE AMETHYST. 171 

most terrible men in our ranks. He had re- 
ceived his name from having been in so many- 
battles . In the smoke, and flash, and fire, 
amidst balls, and shells, and cannon, when the 
roar, and strife, and slaughter were the most 
fearful, he seemed quite at home. The balls 
might fly around him like hail ; they might 
riddle him ; but he would fight on as long as 
he could stand and load his gun. His body 
was a sort of walking history of the war. 
He had hardly a limb but what had been 
wounded ; and he gave to each wound the 
name of the battle in which it was received. 
He had been wounded in the right shoulder, 
and he called that * South Mountain." His 
right leg he called " Bull Eun ; " his breast 
was K Antietam ; " his left arm was M Gains- 
ville;" and his right hip "Fredericksburg." 
But fierce and terrible as he was in battle, in 
the hospital he was as quiet and gentle as a 
child. The doctor comes round again and 
tries to cheer him by talking about his bra- 
very. 

"I don't feel so very brave now," said he. 



172 BIBLE JEWELS. 

"Why not? You'll soon shoulder your 
rifle again." 

" That may be ; but I wan't thinkin' o' that. 
Doctor, stop a minute." 

The doctor waited. 

" Sit down on the edge of my cot." 

The doctor sat down. 

w They call me f Old Battles,' you know," 
said he. " But there's mor'n one kind o' 
fightin'; and when I lie here I never feel 
brave ; for then I think of the battle that I'm 
always beat in, — the battle with strong drink. 
Doctor, unless I get help in this fight, I shall 
never get the victory. Oh, won't you teach 
me to pray ? " 

"Yes," said the doctor. "Here's a short 
prayer for you : c O Lord, pity me, and help 
me, for Jesus' sake.' Let that be your 
prayer." 

"Thank you, thank you" — and he began 
at once, — " c Lord pity me, and help me, for 
Jesus' sake.' Pity me, help me," — and the 
hero of many battles cried like a child. 

The doctor went through the hospital, and 



THE AMETHYST. 173 

visited other wounded men ; and still " Old 
Battles" prayed — "Lord, pityrne, and help 
me, for Jesus' sake." And God heard his 
prayer. He pitied him, and sent him help. 
And when the cup he used to love so much 
was offered him, he turned away from it with 
the prayer upon his lips, — "Lord, pity me 
and help me, for Jesus' sake." Thus he asked 
God for strength, and it was given to him, — 
strength to resist temptation, and to say JVo 
firmly, when urged to drink. His com- 
rades looked on him with admiration. They 
thought he was braver in this fight than in all 
the others he had ever been in. 

He got well again and left the hospital. He 
fought another battle. He was wounded once 
more, and brought back to the hospital. His 
old friend the doctor came to see him. 

" How now, f Old Battles ? ' " said he. " So 
you'll have another glorious scar." 

"No, doctor; I've fought my last battle. 
This wound will never heal into a scar." 

"Don't say that," said the doctor. "Keep 
a good heart. I expect to hear your name 



174 BIBLE JEWELS. 



changed from 'Old Battles' to 'Old Vic- 
tory.' " 

" No," said he, " my fighting is over. But 
doctor, let me tell you, the best battle I ever 
fought, was fought without sword or gun. It 
was fought with that sweet little prayer you 
taught me. That helped me to conquer in 
the fight within, — a harder fight than ever I 
had with outside enemies. It made me con- 
queror over the worst and strongest enemy a 
man can have, — the love of strong drink" 

What a glorious old hero that was ! He 
found the amethyst, — the fear of God, — the 
true temperance jewel, in that hospital. He 
put this round his neck, and it helped him to 
stop drinking. 

We have spoken now of three reasons why 
the fear of God may be called the amethyst, 
— the true temperance jewel. 

The first is, because it will keep us from 
learning to drink; the second is, it will keep 
us from tempting others to drink; and the 
third is, it will lead us to stop drinking. 

My dear young friends, you know that in 



THE AMETHYST. 175 

Switzerland there are great mountains, very 
high and very steep. Many of them have 
their tops covered with ice and snow. Some- 
times great masses of this ice and snow will 
get loose and fall. In their fall they go rush- 
ing down the sides of the mountains with a 
noise like thunder. These masses of falling 
ice and snow are called avalanches. If trav- 
ellers, or cottages, or even villages are in 
their path, they are swept away into instant 
destruction. When an avalanche is once 
started, it never can be stopped till it gets to 
the bottom of the mountain. Sometimes a 
very little thing is enough to start an ava- 
lanche. The stepping of your foot upon it ; 
the taking away of a loose stone ; or even the 
jarring of the air may do it. What a dan- 
gerous thing it is to loosen an avalanche and 
send it down the mountain's side, breaking 
and crushing everything before it ! 

But drunkenness is worse than an avalanche. 
And when anyone gets into the habit of drink- 
ing, he is loosening an avalanche over his head, 
which may, at any time, rush down upon him 



176 BIBLE JEWELS. 

and kill him. Be very careful how you do 
this. Don't get into the habit of drinking, 
and then you will be sure never to become a 
drunkard. When you see young people 
learning to drink, you may say to yourself, — 
" These people are loosening avalanches, and 
when they fall they will bring terrible ruin 
upon them." The Bible gives us one safe rule 
to guide us in this matter. This is it : " Touch 
not; taste not; handle not." Take this as 
your rule about drinking intoxicating liquors. 
Don't touch them, unless ordered as a med- 
icine by your physician. Then this fearful 
avalanche will never be started, and you may 
be sure that you will never become a drunk- 
ard. 

Take this amethyst, — this real temperance 
jewel, — the fear of God. Carry it with you 
wherever you go. Don't be afraid to let peo- 
ple know that you have it. It will bring to 
you safety, health, peace, and prosperity. 
It will bless you, and make you a blessing 
wherever you go. 



VII. 



" An Emerald." — Exodus xxviii. 18. 



: 



VII. 

m gn <8m«alb." — Gtatm* *xbiu. IS. 

The emerald is a jewel of a beautiful, soft, 
rich green color. Ireland is called the " Em- 
erald Isle," because the grass which covers 
its hills and valleys is such a beautiful green. 
When you look at that island from the deck 
of a vessel, far off at sea, it looks like a 
great jewel, — a great emerald, rising out of 
the ocean. The emerald stands, in value 
among jewellers, next to the ruby. It is 
spoken of several times in the Bible. It was 
found on the breastplate of a Jewish high- 
priest. There it was the first on the second 
row of jewels, or the fourth in number from 
the beginning. And when St. John gives 
us an account of the twelve great jewels 
which made up the foundation of the heavenly 
Jerusalem, he tells us that the fourth of them 
was an emerald. And so we find that the 

179 



180 BIBLE JEWELS. 

emerald occupied the same place in the 
breastplate of the high-priest, and in the 
foundation of the heavenly city. It stood 
fourth among the jewels spoken of in both 
these places. 

In a former sermon we spoke of the ruby as 
representing love. But the emerald, with its 
beautiful bright green color, we may consider 
as representing hope. We all know what 
sort of a feeling hope is. When anything 
that we want to have very much has been 
promised to us, then we expect to get that 
thing, whatever it be. We think about it, 
and long for it, and this is the feeling we call 
hope. We say we are hoping for the 
thing that has been promised to us. If 
our parents go away on a long journey, as 
we miss them greatly, and think of the time 
when they will return, then we are hoping 
that they will come back in safety. If they 
promised to bring one of us a new book, and 
another a watch, and another a large doll 
that will open its eyes and speak, then the 
feeling we have when we think about those 



THE EMERALD. 181 

promised things, and long to have them, is 
hope. We are hoping for the new book, or 
the watch, or the doll. Some people are 
hoping to get rich ; and some are hoping to 
get particular places of honor in this world. 
And when we learn to love Jesus and become 
Christians, God promises that he will take 
us to heaven after we die, and that we shall 
each have a crown of glory, and be like a 
king, with Jesus, in a kingdom more glorious 
than ever was seen in this world, and which 
will last forever. And when we think about 
that blessed place, and long to be happy with 
Jesus there, then that feeling is the hope we 
have of heaven. This is the Christian's hope. 
And this hope is the emerald among the 
Bible jewels. And the question now before 
us is, what is this jewel good for? What 
will it do for those who have it ? 

In old times people used to think that the 
emerald had certain wonderful or magical 
powers. It was not true that it had any 
such powers. But hope, which is the Bible 
jewel represented by the emerald, does have 



182 BIBLE JEWELS. 

them. I wish to speak of three of these 
powers. This will give us three reasons 
why hope may be compared to an emerald. 

And the first reason why hope may be com- 
pared to an emerald is, because it makes us 

IHDXJSTRIOUS. 

People used to think that the emerald had 
the power of curing idleness, or of making 
men industrious. If it only had this power 
the emerald would be the most valuable of all 
jewels. Then, when boys and girls were put 
to school, it would only be necessary to hang 
an emerald round each one's neck, and there 
would be no lazy scholars. The owners of 
all our workshops and factories would want 
to have good supply of emeralds. They 
would take care that every workman had one 
in his pocket, and then they would be sure to 
have no lazy workmen about their place. I 
need not tell you, however, that the emerald 
never had any such power as this. But hope, 
the beautiful Bible jewel, that which the 
emerald represents, does have this power. If 



THE EMERALD. 183 

people hope to get rich they know that they 
must be industrious and work hard. 

You know the most industrious little creat- 
ures in the world are the bees. God has 
taught them to know that in winter there are 
no flowers for them to get honey from. And 
so they are very industrious, and work hard 
all summer, that they may have a supply of 
honey to live on through the winter. It 
seems as if it were hope that make the bees so 
industrious. I know that people say it is 
only what we call instinct that leads the bees 
to such industry in making honey, and that 
they don't know what they do it for. Perhaps 
it is so. But we have never been bees, and 
so we don't know how they feel about it. 

I remember once to have heard a very 
curious thing about some bees. A gentleman 
from New England went to live in South 
America. He was very fond t of honey, but 
found there were no bees, and of course no 
honey, in that part of the country. When he 
came home on a visit he resolved to take a hive 
of bees back with him that he might have a sup- 



184 BIBLE JEWELS. 

ply of honey. The first season the little creat- 
ures were as industrious as ever, and made 
their usual supply of honey. But after being 
there a year, and finding that there was no win- 
ter, but that the flowers were blooming all the 
year, they quit working, gave up their indus- 
trious habits, and took to leading a lazy sort 
of life, just like the butterfly. That looked 
as if those bees at least knew what they were 
about. It seemed as if by their conduct they 
would say to that gentleman, "Ah ! sir, you 
can't fool us. We can get our living here all 
the year round without work, and so weVe 
made up our minds to take things easy, even 
though you have to go without honey." 

There is nothing like hope to make people 
industrious. Here is a farmer. See how 
industrious he is in ploughing his ground, in 
harrowing it, and sowing the seed in it. And 
what makes him so industrious? It is the 
hope of getting a harvest in the fall. There 
is a whaling-ship going off on a three years' 
voyage to the North Seas. What cold, 
stormy weather the sailors on board that ship 



THE EMERALD. 185 

will have to meet ! "What hard work they 
will have to do, in catching and killing the 
whales ! And how industrious they will all be 
in their work ! And why ? What will make 
them so industrious ? Hope will do it. They 
are hoping to bring home a valuable cargo of 
sperm oil, and that makes them industrious. 

Perhaps you have seen the picture of two 
boys who were driving a donkey-cart. The 
donkey was lazy. In spite of all the beating 
they bestowed upon him, they couldn't get 
him to move faster than a very slow, snail- 
like walk. As for a brisk trot, that was out 
of the question. No whipping would get 
him up to this. At last they got a bunch of 
nice new hay, and fastened it on the shaft of 
the cart, about a foot in front of the donkey. 
He could see it and smell it. He was hungry, 
and thought it w^ould taste very nice to get a 
bite of the hay. In the hope of catching up 
to it, he began to walk faster and foster. Then 
from a walk he got into a trot. Pretty soon 
the trot quickened into a gallop, as he went 
flying along after the hay. What an illustra- 



186 BIBLE JEWELS. 

tion that donkey was of the influence of hope 
in leading to industry ! 

Some years ago there was a boy in Eng- 
land named Warren Hastings. His family 
had formerly been very rich. They used to 
own a very large and beautiful place in the 
neighborhood of the village in which this boy 
lived. But this property had been sold, and 
now belonged to other people. One day, 
during recess at school, Warren Hastings 
was reclining under a tree, at the edge of the 
woods, on the old family place. As he lay 
there on the grass, he said to himself, — "All 
these woods, and yonder fields, and the 
houses and gardens on them used to belong 
to our family. Now, we don't own anything 
here. Wouldn't it be fine if I could only get 
rich enough to buy this beautiful property all 
back again? I wonder if I couldn't do it. 
I'll try''' He set the hope of doing this be- 
fore him. It was like putting an emerald 
round his neck that had the magical power of 
making him industrious. That hope made 
him industrious. He studied hard. When 






THE EMERALD. 187 

he had finished his education, he went to the 
East Indies. He was very industrious there. 
He gave his whole time to his business. He 
rose to one higher position after another, till 
he got to be Governor of India ; and in about 
twenty years he went back to England one of 
the richest men in the country. And then he 
bought the old place, so that it belonged to 
his family again. The hope of doing this had 
made him industrious. 

And how many poor boys I might tell you 
about, who have been made industrious by 
hope, and so have become rich, and great, 
and good men ! And when we become true 
Christians, we have the hope of getting to 
heaven. This is a better hope, ten thousand 
times better, than that which Warren Hastings 
set before him, of getting back the family 
homestead. It will make us industrious in 
serving God, and trying to please him. The 
first thing that hope does for us is to make 
us industrious, and for this reason it may 
well be compared to an emerald. 

Again, people used to think that the emer- 



188 - BIBLE JEWELS. 

aid had the power of taking away fear. And 
this leads us to speak of the second reason 
why hope may be compared to an emerald; 
because it makes us courageous. 

The Bible tells us that " hope maketh not 
ashamed" (Kom. v. 5). In one place in the 
Bible, hope is compared to a helmet. A hel- 
met was a kind of hat, or covering for the 
head, made of iron, or steel, or brass. Before 
the days of powder and guns, when people 
fought with spears and arrows, a helmet 
would protect the head and keep it from 
being wounded in battle. And a soldier who 
had his head covered with a good helmet 
would be very bold and courageous. He 
would not be afraid when the arrows were 
flying thick around him. 

In another place in the Bible hope is com- 
pared to an anchor (Heb. vi. 19). And this 
is the reason why we always draw an anchor 
as the figure, or emblem of hope. Suppose 
that you and I are at sea, on board a vessel. 
A storm is driving our vessel right on towards 
a rocky and dangerous coast. If we have no 



THE EMERALD. 189 

anchor on board we may well be afraid, for 
pretty soon we shall be dashed against the 
rocks and perish. But suppose we have a 
good anchor, and a strong cable to hold it by 
on board our vessel. We drop our anchor in 
the sea. It sinks to the bottom, and is buried 
in the mud and sand, or takes hold of the 
rocks there. It keeps the vessel from drift- 
ing towards the shore. We are safe. Our 
fear is gone. Let the winds blow, and the 
waves roar ever so much, they can't hurt us. 
The anchor gives us hope, and this hope 
makes us bold, or courageous. 

And it is just so when we become Chris- 
tians. Then we love Jesus. We have hope 
in him. That hope is to our souls just like 
what the anchor is to the sailor. It keeps us 
from being afraid. 

I was reading lately about a little boy who 
used to be afraid of being left alone in the 
dark. When he went to bed at night his 
mother used to keep a light in the room, and 
sit by his bedside until he fell asleep. After 
a while he learned to love Jesus. Now, he 



190 BIBLE JEWELS. 

found that the hope he had in him gave him 
courage. Soon after this he said to his 
mother one night, when he had got into bed, — 

"Mother, you needn't stay till lam asleep. 
You may take the light and go downstairs." 

n Why, Willie," said his mother, " you used 
to be afraid of being alone in the dark. How 
is it that you are not afraid now? " 

"Why, mother, I know now that Jesus 
sees me in the dark as well as in the light ; 
and am sure that he will take care of me. 
And ever since I heard my teacher talk about 
that beautiful verse in the Psalms, 'What 
time I am afraid, I will trust in thee,' I don't 
mind about being in the dark." 

That little boy had this beautiful Bible jewel, 
the emerald, hope, and it gave him courage. 

In the days when the Roman emperors 
used to persecute the Christians because they 
would not give up their religion, a Christian 
bishop named Chrysostom was brought before 
the emperor. 

" I will send you into banishment," said the 
emperor, "unless you give up your religion." 



THE EMERALD. 191 

"All the world is my Father's house," said 
he, "and so wherever you send me I shall be 
at home." 

"I will take away your treasures," said the 
emperor. 

"Earthly treasures I don't care for," said 
the bishop. " My best treasures are laid up 
in heaven. Those you cannot take away 
from me." 

"I will put you to death," he said. 

"You may kill this body, I know," ob- 
served the Christian. "I don't care much 
for that. You cannot hurt my soul, for its 
life is hid with Christ in God, " 

"But I will separate you from all your 
friends." 

"Nay," said the brave bishop, "for my 
best Friend is in heaven, and nothing can 
separate me from him." 

What courage that Christian's hope gave to 
him ! 

Jerome of Prague was a Christian martvr. 
He was sentenced to be burnt to death. He 
was fastened to the stake. The wood was 



192 BIBLE JEWELS. 

piled up around him, and the executioner 
was going behind him to set fire to the pile. 

w Come here," said the brave martyr, " and 
kindle the fire before my eyes. I am not 
afraid to look upon it." 

As the fire blazed up, he began to sing a 
hymn, and kept on singing till the flames 
stopped him. He had this precious Bible 
jewel of hope in his heart, and how coura- 
geous it made him ! 

And this blessed hope of heaven which the 
Bible gives, can make people just as cou- 
rageous now, as they used to be in former 
times. 

Two miners in Cornwall, England, were 
working down in a deep mine. They were 
blasting rocks. This is done, you know, by 
drilling a hole in the rock. Then the powder 
is put in and pieces of the rock are hammered 
into the upper part of the hole. This is 
called charging the rock. It is just like load- 
ing a gun.' When this is done, they have 
what is called a fuse. This is like the little 
string at the end of a fire-cracker. It burns 



THE EMEEALD. 193 

slowly, and takes ten or fifteen minutes be- 
fore it reaches the powder and explodes, so 
as to give the men time to get out of the 
reach of danger. When these two miners 
had got the rock all ready for blasting, one 
of them used to get into the bucket and be 
drawn up to the top. Then the bucket 
would return, the other miner would light 
the fuse, run to the bucket, and be drawn up 
before the explosion took place. One day 
the fuse took fire, unexpectedly, when they 
were both down at the bottom of the mine. 
As soon as it began hissing, the two fright- 
ened men ran to the bucket, jumped in, and 
made the signal to hoist. But the man above 
could only draw them up one at a time. There 
was not a moment to lose. Only one could 
go up, and the one who stayed down would 
be blown to pieces. One of the miners was 
a Christian ; the other was not. Quick as 
thought the brave-hearted, Christian man 
jumped out of the bucket, saying to his com- 
panion, "Escape for your life: I shall be in 
heaven in a few moments." 

13 



194 BIBLE JEWELS. 

The bucket was drawn up, and the man was 
safe. They listened at the top for the explo- 
sion. Presently they heard the heavy, smoth- 
ered sound, made by the bursting rock. 
They waited awhile for the smoke to scatter, 
and then went down to look for the mangled 
remains of the brave miner. They began to 
dig among the fallen rocks for his body. At 
last they heard a voice. Their friend was 
still alive. They worked away, and pretty 
soon they found him, not only alive, but un- 
hurt. All that he could tell about it was, 
that as soon as his friend was gone up, he lay 
flat on the ground ; and when the explosion 
took place God had caused the rock to fall over 
him in such a way that he hadn't even a 
scratch of a wound about him. When they 
asjsed him what made him willing to stay 
down and let his friend escape, his reply was, 
"I believed my soul was. safe, but I was not 
sure of Ms." 

Ah ! that man had an emerald heart. He 
had the hope of heaven, and it made him cou- 
rageous indeed. He was a real hero. 



THE EMERALD. 195 

The second reason why hope may be com- 
pared to an emerald y is because it makes us 
courageous. 

Another strange power, which it used to be 
supposed the emerald had, was that of taking 
away gloom and sadness from the minds of 
people. Of course this was a mistake. It 
never had any such power. 

But this points out to us a third reason why 
hope may be compared to an emerald. It is 
because it makes us cheerful. 

Hope is a bright, sunshiny thing. You 
know how beautiful the rainbow is ! There 
is nothing in the world more pleasant to 
look upon. When we see it spanning the 
sky, how delightful it makes the woods look, 
and the fields, and everything under its broad 
arch ! Hope is sometimes compared to the 
rainbow. And it may very properly be so 
compared, because it seems to paint in bright 
colors the things it leads us to look for, and 
to put rainbows all about them. And it is 
very singular that when St. John had a door 
opened before him, so that he could look 



196 BIBLE JEWELS. 

through it into heaven, he saw the throne of 
God, and he tells us that w there was a rainbow 
round about the throne ; " and that rainbow 
he says was "like unto an emerald." How 
beautiful it must have looked ! An emerald 
rainbow, — a rainbow of hope in heaven ! I 
don't know what that beautiful rainbow was 
intended to teach. But one thing I know 
for certain, that when we get the hope of 
heaven, which Jesus gives, fixed in our hearts, 
it brightens up our whole life. It is like hav- 
ing a rainbow about us all the time. This 
hope makes us cheerful. 

There was a little girl once whose mother 
was poor, though she was a good Christian 
woman. This little girl, whose name was 
Lillie, was very fond of music. A kind 
neighbor, who loved Lillie, used to let her 
come into her house, for an hour or so every 
day, and play on their piano. One day, 
when Lillie had just come back from this 
neighbors fine house, she felt unhappy and 
discontented. She thought to herself how 
plain and shabby our cottage home is, and 



THE EMERALD. 197 

how hard it is that we can't have a piano as 
well as our neighbors ! She felt so badly 
that she leaned down her head on the table, 
and burst into tears. Just then her mother 
came in. 

"Why, Lillie dear, what's the matter?" 

" O mother, it seems hard that we should 
be so poor as not to be able to have a 
piano ! " 

"Never mind, daughter dear," said her 
mother, "only be careful to love and serve 
Jesus, and then though you may not have a 
piano on earth, you will have a harp in 
heaven" 

Lillie wiped away her tears in a moment. 
That thought was very sweet to her. She 
was a Christian child. She did love Jesus. 
Her mother's words seemed to set the door 
of heaven open before her. She felt as 
though she could see the rainbow, the emer- 
ald rainbow, which St. John saw. She had 
the hope of heaven in her heart, and it made 
her cheerful and happy. Lillie has grown to 
be a woman now ; but she has never forgot- 



198 BIBLE JEWELS. 

ten her mother's words. And many a time 
when she could not have what she wanted, 
she has said to herself, as if whispering over 
her mothers saying, — 

"Never mind, I may not have a piano on 
earth, but I shall have a harp in heaven." 

There is a steam ferry-boat on the river 
Mersey in England. It runs from Liverpool 
to Birkenhead and back. Several years ago, 
passengers on that ferry-boat would some- 
times see, on a warm, bright day, a poor 
crippled boy. His body was grown almost 
to a man's size, but his limbs were withered 
and helpless, and not bigger than the limbs 
of a child. 

He used to wheel himself about in a small 
carriage, like those that boys use in their 
play. He had a little musical instrument, 
called a concertina, and on this he used to 
play some sweet simple tunes. He never 
asked for anything, but yet very few of the 
passengers could hear his touching music, or 
look at his honest, cheerful face, without 
dropping a penny or two into his carriage. 



THE EMERALD. 199 

One day a lady was standing near, looking 
at him with great pity. She thought how 
sad and lonely he must feel, unable to help 
himself, and with no prospect of ever being 
any better in this world. She said to a lady 
who was with her, but not intending that he 
should hear it, — 

w Poor boy ! what a sad life he has to lead ; 
and nothing in all the future to look forward 
to!" 

But he did hear it. And in stepping out 
of the boat that lady saw a tear in his eye and 
a bright smile on his face trying to chase the 
tear away, as he said, — 

w Fm expecting to have wings some day, 
lady." 

Happy boy ! He was poor. He was a help- 
less cripple. But the door in heaven had 
been opened for him to look through. He 
had seen the emerald rainbow. He had 
heard what Jesus said about those who love 
him, how they shall be made "equal to the 
angels," by-and-by. He had that blessed 
hope in his heart. It was like a precious 



200 BIBLE JEWELS. 

jewel, like a beautiful emerald to him. And 
though he was so poor, and so much afflicted, 
this hope made him cheerful. 

I have only one more story to tell now, 
about this Bible jewel, — this emerald, — hope. 
But this, like the others just mentioned, 
shows what power hope has to make people 
cheerful. This story refers to something 
which took place in the Southern States before 
the late war. 

Down in the State of Georgia there lived 
an old negro slave, who always went by the 
name of "Happy Dick." He had a kind 
master, who allowed him the use of a com- 
fortable hut for himself and his wife, because 
they had been so faithful in working before 
they grew old. Dick had this Bible jewel, — 
the emerald, hope, — that we are speakiug of, 
and it made him cheerful and happy, as he 
sat under the shadow of the great magnolia 
tree that grew near his cabin. 

One day a Christian lady, who was on a 
visit to his master's house, asked him if he 
never felt uncomfortable when he thought he 



THE EMERALD. 201 

was a slave ; and if he did not long to be free, 
like other men, so that he might lay up his 
earnings, and have something which he could 
call his own. 

w O missus ! don't ask me dat," said the 
old negro ; * dem days is all gone by. I's 
longed for freedom mightily, but I longs for 
heben, too, and dat is a heap better. I neb- 
ber allows myself to 'fleet on the bad tings 
dat happen to me, nor de good tings dat I 
nebber had. And when I tink about suffin' 
to call mine, 'pears like I had a big treasure 
right yer, dat I don't owe any man for." 

" How is that, Dick? " said the lady. 

* Why, missus, when all the rest ob de 
world am saying, c Dis is my house,' f Dat is 
my sugar-mill,' *Dere is my great cotton- 
patch,' I look up to heben and say, 'Dere is 
my hope, and dere is my Saviour ; ' and when 
I own de Lord Jesus, 'pears like I owned all 
de rest. For de earth is de Lord's and de 
fulness dereof. De air is mine, and I can 
breeve it. De sunshine is mine, and I can 
sit in it. De water is mine, and I can drink 



202 BIBLE JEWELS. 

it. De earth is mine, and I can lie down and 
sleep on it; and aint dat enuff?" The 
hope of heaven was like an emerald to that 
old negro, and it made him cheerful and 
happy. 

Now we have spoken of three things which 
people used to think the emerald had the 
power of doing ; and hope may be compared 
to an emerald for these three reasons. The 
first reason is because it makes us industrious; 
the second is because it makes us courageous ; 
and the third because it makes us cheerful. 

It is a very important thing for us all to 
have this Bible jewel, — this emerald, — the 
hope of heaven. If it can give industry and 
courage and cheerfulness to those who have it, 
then it is certainly worth trying to get. But 
how can we get it ? We can't buy it. We 
can't earn it. None of our friends can give 
it to us. There is only one person from 
whom it can be got. Jesus is that person. 
We never can have the real Bible emerald, 
a true hope of heaven, till we learn to love 
Jesus. We must ask him to change our 



THE EMERALD. 203 

hearts, and make us his dear children. Then 
this Bible jewel will be ours. We shall have 
the hope of heaven in our hearts, and we 
shall find what a treasure that hope is I 



; 



VIII. 



VIII. 



This is a jewel not spoken of in the Bible. 
But it is so beautiful that I cannot pass it by 
without stopping to speak about it, and to 
see what lessons we may learn from it. I 
dare say it is included in some of the places 
in the Bible where gems and jewels are spoken 
of, in a general way, as "precious stones." 
There are more than a dozen such places that 
might be quoted. And if we only had a full 
list of all the jewels there referred to as 
" precious stones " I feel pretty sure we should 
find the opal among them. And so, though 
it is not mentioned by name, we know it be- 
longs to the same family, and therefore, I 
think we may well give it a place among our 
Bible jewels. 

The opal is a very beautiful jewel. It is 
reckoned more valuable than the sapphire. 

207 



208 BIBLE JEWELS. 

When set by the jeweller, in a ring, or breast- 
pin, it is generally surrounded by small dia- 
monds, — brilliants, as they are called, — and 
the bright, sparkling rays of the diamonds, as 
they are seen flashing out, make a very great 
contrast with the calm and soft, but rich and 
varying, tints of the opal. This jewel has not 
merely one color, but many. When you 
first look at it, you will say its color is white, 
or pearlish gray. But when you hold it be- 
tween your eye and the sun, you will find its 
color varying. It seems to take on all the 
colors of the rainbow. Pale-red, emerald- 
green, golden-yellow, violet, purple, and sky- 
blue may all, in turn, be seen blending 
sweetly together, and making it look very 
beautiful. 

There are said to be two very fine opals 
among what are called the crown jewels of 
the French. One of these is in the clasp that 
fastens the emperor's cloak. The most valu- 
able opal now known in the world is in the 
museum in the city of Vienna, the capital of 
Austria. It is very large, and very beauti- 



THE OPAL. 209 

ful, and is valued at two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars, — a quarter of a million of 
dollars. 

We read in history about a Eoman senator 
who had a famous opal. It was as large as a 
hazel-nut, and was reckoned to be worth eight 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It is said 
that the Roman emperor wanted the senator to 
give it to him. But he was not willing to give 
it up. I don't blame him for that. But the 
emperor did. He sentenced him to be ban- 
ished from Home. So the man took his jewel 
with him and went into exile rather than stay at 
home and lose his beautiful and valuable opal. 

All the colors of the most beautiful of the 
other jewels are found to meet in the opal. 
But it is most easy to see in it the red of the 
ruby, the yellow of the topaz, the purple of 
the amethyst, and the green of the emerald. 
And now the question is, what Bible jewel 
shall we consider the opal as representing? 
What is it that we read of, in the Bible, that 
brings all blessings to us, and does us more 
good than anything else ? It is prayer. Then 

14 



210 BIBLE JEWELS. 

we may take the opal as representing prayer. 
This is a jewel that the Bible has a great deal 
to say about. And there are so many bright 
and beautiful things connected with this Bible 
jewel, — prayer, — that when we think of 
them, we may well be reminded of the opal, 
with its rich, soft rays of many-colored love- 
liness. We may speak of three of the colors 
seen in the opal, — the red, the purple, and 
the green. These colors represent three of 
the jewels we have already spoken about. 
They are the ruby, the amethyst, and the 
emerald. These all seem to meet in the opal. 
We may take these as representing three of 
the benefits of prayer, of which the opal may 
remind us. 

The red color in the opal reminds us of the 
ruby. And people in old times used to think, 
that one of the benefits you got by having a 
ruby was protection. But ah ! there is no 
protection like that we get from this Bible 
jewel, the opal of prayer. 

A good minister whose name was Flavel, 
was once going round by sea from Dartmouth 



THE OPAL. 211 

to London. On the way a violent storm 
arose, and threatened the destruction of the 
vessel. Night came on and the storm con- 
tinued to increase. About midnight the cap- 
tain said it was impossible for them to be 
saved unless the wind should change, for it 
was driving them directly on to a rocky coast, 
where they must be dashed to pieces. Mr. 
Flavel asked that all who could be spared 
from deck, would come into the cabin and 
join with him in prayer. They did so. He 
prayed earnestly for deliverance. His prayer 
was hardly ended, when some one came down 
from the deck, crying, — 

" Deliverance ! deliverance ! the wind has 
just changed round to the opposite quarter." 

And so they found protection in prayer, and 
were carried safely to w the haven where they 
would be." 

A man who had once been a thief, and was 
afterwards converted, wrote an account of his 
life. Among other stories he told this : — 

"Three of us, one winter's evening, were 
marking the house of a man, in which we 



212 BIBLE JEWELS. 

were told there was a good deal of money, 
and which we intended to rob that night. As 
we came near, however, we heard singing ; 
and when that was over, the family kneeled 
down to pray. We heard the father praj^ 
that God would protect them from all harm 
and danger. He prayed for the neighbor- 
hood, and for all mankind, that sinners might 
be turned from their evil ways, and made to 
know the Saviour, in whom alone peace and 
salvation were to be found. I saw that my 
companions were startled ; but they tried to 
turn it off. For myself, I could not get over 
the effect of what I had heard. It made me 
feel very uneasy. It brought back the re- 
membrance of the instructions I had received 
when a boy. I felt that I couldn't do any- 
thing that night. "Let us go," I said; 
"we've seen enough." 

"But we haven't seen the back of the 
house," said one of my companions, "and we 
don't know the best way to get in. Don't 
you mean to come to-night ? " 

" No," said I, " this is no place for us ;" and, 



THE OPAL. 213 

as I was the leader of the gang, we went 
away. 

Here you see how God made that good 
man's prayer, as it were, the means of an- 
swering itself. It brought to him and his 
family the very protection that he prayed 
for. 

A vessel bound from Glasgow, Scotland, 
to New York, was overtaken by a terrific 
hurricane in the middle of the Atlantic 
ocean. The captain tried everything in his 
power to weather the storm. At last he gave 
up and said, — 

"The ship is on her beam-ends. She'll 
never right again. We shall all perish." 

w Not at all, sir ! not at all, sir ! cried a little 
sailor-boy. " God will save us yet." 

" Why do you think so ? " asked the cap- 
tain. 

"Because, sir, at this very hour they are 
praying, under the Bethel flag, in the city of 
Glasgow, for all sailors in distress, and we 
are among the number ; and God will hear 
their prayers, sir; now see if he don't" 



214 BIBLE JEWELS. 

With tears in his eyes the captain ex- 
claimed, — 

"God grant that their prayers may be 
heard in our behalf, my little preacher." 

Just at that moment a great wave struck 
the ship and righted her again. And a few 
days after the ship sailed safely into the har- 
bor of New York. There you see how that 
ship, and all on board of her, found protec- 
tion and safety in prayer. 

The King of Dahomey, in Africa, is one of 
the cruelest monsters alive. A few years ago 
he sent a large army to destroy the city of 
Abbeokuta, where the English missionaries 
were laboring. He was making a great deal 
of money by selling slaves. The missiona- 
ries were trying to break up the slave-trade. 
This made him very angry. He swore at 
them dreadfully, and said he would burn 
down the city and kill everybody in it. His 
army was encamped under the walls of the 
city. The people in Abbeokuta had very 
few soldiers, but they resolved to defend 
themselves in the best way they could. 



THE OPAL. 215 

Their chief dependence, however, was on 
prayer. The missionaries and native Chris- 
tians met together for prayer. For eight 
days that great army lay encamped around 
the city. All that time the people in the city 
were expecting to be attacked. All that time 
the meetings for prayer were continued. 
Day after day passed by, and yet no attack 
was made. It was a time of great trouble 
and distress in that city. Each hour they 
were expecting the threatening storm of war 
to burst upon them, though praying against 
it all the while. On the morning of the 
ninth day they rose and looked out towards 
their enemies, and not one of them was to be 
seen. During the night the King of Da- 
homey had ordered his army to withdraw, 
and it was marching back again to his own 
country. It was very strange, that after all 
his threatenings, he should let his army lie 
before that city for eight days, and then 
march away without making any attack upon 
it. The people in Abbeokuta never found 
out the reason for it, but they felt sure that 



216 BIBLE JEWELS. 

God had heard their prayers, and had pro- 
tected them from their fierce enemy. 

This case is very much like the one we 
read of in the Bible, when God heard the 
prayers of the good king Hezekiah, and pro- 
tected Jerusalem from the great army of the 
Assyrians. 

The red color in the opal reminds us of the 
ruby. This, it used to be thought, had the 
power of protecting those who wore it. And 
the first reason why we may call prayer the 
Bible opal, is because there is protection in 
it. 

But when we look at the opal we see also 
a purple color in it. This reminds ns of the 
amethyst. It used to be thought that this 
jewel had the power of helping people in 
anything they had to do. And this is the 
second reason why prayer may be called the 
Bible opal, because there is help in it. 

There is nothing that we need, in this 
world, more than help. We are all the time 
having something to do which we either can- 
not do at all, or cannot do in the right way 



THE OPAL. 217 

without help. And that which can get for 
us the help we need is a jewel indeed, — the 
most precious of all jewels. And one of the 
sweetest promises in the Bible is that in which 
God says to each of his people, "Fear not; 
I will help thee" (Is. 41-10). And the only 
way in which we can get this help is by 
prayer. 

Let me tell you about a sea-captain who 
needed help very much, and got it in answer 
to prayer. 

When we are walking through a city, we 
look for the little signs which have the names 
of the streets on them, or for the numbers on 
the houses to find out where we are. When 
we are going along the road in the country, 
we look at the mile-stones to find how far we 
have come, and how far we have to go. But 
at sea there are no mile-stones to tell how 
far you have come, and no finger-boards to 
point out the direction in which to go. But 
the captain has a curious kind of instrument 
called a quadrant. When the sky is clear, 
by looking at the sun through this instrument 



218 BIBLE JEWELS. 

at twelve o'clock, he can make a calculation 
which will show him just where he is, as cer- 
tainly as we know where we are when we see 
a mile-stone on the turnpike road. And 
looking through this instrument is called 
making an observation. 

Now, the captain, of whom I am speaking, 
had had a long spell of cloudy, foggy weather. 
For a number of days he had never seen the 
sun, and had made no observation. He 
couldn't tell how far his vessel had gone, or 
whereabouts she was. He was getting to 
feel very uneasy. He thought, if he could 
commit his soul to God's keeping, he might 
certainty commit his ship to him too. He 
did so and prayed for God to take care of 
him and his vessel too. 

But still he wanted very much to see the 
sun at noon, that he might make an observa- 
tion and find out out where they were. So he 
prayed earnestly to God, one morning, that 
the sun might come out at noon. About 
eleven o'clock he went on deck, with his 
quadrant under his coat. But there was a 



THE OPAL. 219 

heavy drizzle, and a fog so thick that he 
could hardly see the length of the ship, in 
any direction. The men looked at the cap- 
tain as if they thought he must be crazy to 
be expecting to use his quadrant in such a 
fog. He went into the cabin again and 
prayed, and came up. Still there was no 
sign of clearing away. Again he went and 
prayed, and again he appeared on deck with 
the quadrant in his hand. It now wanted only 
ten minutes of twelve o'clock, but still the 
fog was as thick as ever. Yet there he stood 
with his quadrant, waiting for God to answer 
his prayer, and help him to get his observa- 
tion. Five minutes before twelve it grew 
lighter. The mist seemed to be folded up 
and rolled away as if by an unseen almighty 
hand. The blue sky appeared. The sun 
shone out brightly. The man of prayer stood 
there with his quadrant and took his obser- 
vation. He felt as if God were just at his 
side. He trembled with excitement, so that 
he could hardly hold the instrument. But he 
got his observation. He found out where the 



220 BIBLE JEWELS. 

ship was. He had the comfort of knowing 
that all was right. But he had no sooner 
done this than the mist rolled over the 
heavens again, and the fog and drizzle were 
as thick and heavy as before. What a beau- 
tiful example this is of help received in 
answer to prayer ! 

Here is another illustration connected with a 
little boy. He was about eight years old. 
His parents were poor, but honest, indus- 
trious, pious people. They lived in a manu- 
facturing town in the North of England. 

One morning, this little boy was sent by 
his mother to the mill to buy some flour. 
His mother gave him five shillings, which she 
tied up, very carefully, in a corner of the 
bag which was to hold the flour. Then she 
kindly patted him on the shoulder, and told 
him to make haste, and come back as soon as 
he could. Then he hurried on and was soon 
making his way through the busy crowd, and 
along the dirty streets of that smoky town. 

On arriving at the mill he found a number 
of people there waiting to be served. He 






THE OPAL. 221 

took his place in the line to get his flour. 
He had to wait for half an hour before his 
turn came. Then he gave the man his bag, 
and told him that he wanted five shillings' 
worth of flour, and that his mother had tied 
the money up in a corner of the bag. 

The man opened the bag, turned it inside 
out, and shook it : but, alas ! there was no 
money in it. 

"There's no money here," said he, as he 
tossed the bag aside, and turned round to 
wait on another customer. 

Poor little Johnny ! how badly he felt, to 
think that he had lost his money, without 
knowing how ! 

YThat could he do? His mother wanted 
the flour; and he knew she had no more 
money to get it with. How could he venture 
to go home and tell his mother of his loss ? 

Greatly troubled, he withdrew a little from 
the crowd, to think w 7 hat he should do. 
Then the thought came into his mind ; — 

" God can do everything. He can help me 
to find my money. I'll pnvy to him." 



222 BIBLE JEWELS. 

Then he walked quietly up and down in a 
corner of the mill, and, liftiug up his heart 
to God in secret he offered, very earnestly, 
this simple prayer, — 

"Heavenly Father, please help me find 
my money, for Jesus' sake. Amen ! " 

Then, knowing that he must work as well 
as pray, he set off to look for his money. 
He went back the same way that he had come, 
looking carefully at every step, and offering, 
all the time, the earnest prayer that God 
would please help him find his money. The 
way he had come was over a bridge, which 
was the busiest part of that busy town. How 
little hope there was of his finding his money 
on the open street in broad daylight, where 
hundreds must have passed since he had 
dropped it ! Still on he goes, with his head 
bent, watching narrowly every step, and still 
offering his prayer to God for help. He is 
almost over the bridge, looking narrowly 
first on this side, then on that, when, lo ! there, 
on the black ground, he sees a bright shining 
shilling, and then another, and then another, 



THE OPAL. 223 

till he has picked up all the five silver shil- 
lings he had lost. Wasn't he astonished 
though? And didn't he jump for joy when 
he grasped the five shillings in his hand? 
There never was a happier little fellow than 
he was, when he took the flour home to his 
mother, and told her all that had happened to 
him. 

And when we look at the purple color in 
the opal it may remind us of the amethyst. 
It used to be thought that this jewel secured 
help to those who had it. But there is 
nothing like prayer to secure us help. And 
for this reason the opal may be compared to 
it. 

I wanted to speak of the yellow color in 
the opal, representing the topaz. But it 
would take too much time. So we pass this 
over, to speak of one more color, and that is 
the green. This represents the emerald* It 
used to be thought that this had the power 
of blessing people. But there is nothing 
that brings us blessings as prayer does. 
And this gives us the third reason ivhy prayer 



224 BIBLE JEWELS. 

may be called the Bible opal, because it brings 

US BLESSINGS. 

The Bible is fall of stories that show us 
what great blessings have been received 
through prayer. Abraham's servant prayed 
when he was seeking a wife for his master 
Isaac, and he found the right one. Jacob 
prayed when he was wrestling with the angel, 
and he got a blessing from him. Moses 
prayed, and his prayer opened a way of es- 
cape for the Israelites right through the Red 
Sea. Hannah prayed, and Samuel was born. 
What a blessing that was ! David prayed, 
and the blessing he received was victory over 
the giant. Elijah prayed, and his prayer 
shut up the windows of heaven so that there 
was no rain for three years. He prayed 
again, and his prayer brought abundance of 
rain to refresh the parched earth. What a 
blessing that was ! Isaiah and Hezekiah 
prayed, and an army of an hundred and 
eighty-five thousand men was killed in one 
night. Daniel prayed in the lions' den, and 
his prayer shut the mouths of the lions. 



THE OPAL. 225 

Jonah prayed in the belly of the whale, and 
his prayer brought him up from the bottom 
of the sea, and set him down safely on the 
dry laud again. Shadrach, Mesheck, and 
Abednego prayed in the burning fiery fur- 
nace, and their prayer kept them from being 
hurt by the fire. These are a few of the 
cases mentioned in the Bible, which show us 
the blessings obtained by prayer. 

And prayer is working such wonders still. 
It brings clown from heaven the very best 
things that are in it. It brings strength to 
the weak, and riches to the poor, and comfort 
to those who are in sorrow. Prayer is a 
bank of wealth, a mine of mercies, a store 
of blessings. It flies where the eagle never 
flew. It travels further and faster than the 
light. 

Mary, Queen of Scots, used to say that 
she feared John Knox's prayers more than 
an army of ten thousand men. There is 
truth in every word of the hymn that 
says, — 

15 



226 BIBLE JEWELS. 

" Prayer makes the darkened cloud withdraw, 
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw, — 
Gives exercise to faith and love, 
Brings every blessing from above" 

Let me mention some instances to show the 
blessings obtained by prayer in these days. 

A Christian man had no money in his 
pocket, no food in the cupboard, and no 
credit at the store. He prayed to God for 
relief, and, before he had done praying, a 
friend called and left him as much money as 
he needed. 

A Christian mother had a sailor-boy thou- 
sands of miles away from her. She awoke 
one night thinking about her absent boy. 
Something seemed to whisper to her, " Get up 
and pray for your son." She got up and 
prayed long and earnestly for him. After- 
wards she found that he had been in great 
danger at that very hour. 

He had been washed overboard in a storm, 
and was caught by the hair of his head, and 
snatched from a watery grave at the very time 
that his mother was praying for him. 



THE OPAL. 227 

Some years ago, a minister of the gospel 
was preaching about the benefits and bless- 
ings that may be obtained by prayer. " I 
once knew a little boy," said he, " who had a 
very bad sore on his right hand. It got 
worse and worse, in spite of all that was 
done for it. At last it began to mortify, and 
the doctor said it would have to be taken off, 
in order to save his life. The day was fixed 
upon for the operation. The little boy was a 
Christian. He had a little retired, shady 
spot, in a corner of his father's garden, where 
he used often to go and take his book, when he 
wanted to have a nice, quiet time for reading. 
When he heard the doctor say that his hand 
must be cut off, he felt very badly. He 
didn't want to lose his right hand. So he 
went to that quiet, shady spot in the garden. 
There he kneeled down, and prayed that God 
would make his hand better, and let it get 
well again, without having to be cut off. 

"The next day, when the doctor came to look 
at his hand, he was very much surprised to 
find it looking a great deal better. The next 



228 BIBLE JEWELS. 

day it was better still ; and the third day, he 
said he thought it was going to get well, and 
that it would not be necessary to have it taken 
off. The hand got quite well. The little 
boy grew up to be a man. He became a 
minister," and then holding up his hand, the 
minister said, "this is the right hand that 
was saved from being cut off by prayer. 
And I hold up this hand before you as a 
proof of the blessings that may be obtained 
by prayer." 

Some years ago there was a small congre- 
gation of Wesleyan Methodists in a village 
in the County of Essex, in England. They 
used to worship in a little cottage. But after 
a while their number increased till that cot- 
tage was too small for them. They concluded 
to build a chapel ; and a lot of ground was 
secured on which it was to be built. But 
some wicked men in the village didn't want 
to have the chapel built. They resolved to 
oppose the building of it as much as they 
could. One of these men owned a lot of 
ground next to that on which the chapel was 



THE OPAL. 229 

to stand. On this lot there was a fine large 
tree. One of the great branches of this tree 
grew over the chapel-lot. It was right in 
the way of the building. One of the mem- 
bers of the church went to the owner of the 
tree to ask him if he would allow them to 
cut off that limb. He said, — 

* No, that I won't ; and if you attempt to do 
it I'll sue you." 

Now what was to be done? The chapel 
must go up ; and yet they could not afford 
to go to law about it. They resolved to hold 
a special meeting for prayer on the subject. 
They did so. They told the Lord of their 
trouble, and asked him to relieve them. 
That night there came up a violent storm, 
with thunder and lightning. The lightning 
struck that tree, and shivered the branch 
just where it was in the way of the chapel- 
walls. 

This made those wicked men afraid. 
They gave up their opposition to the chapel, 
and the building was finished without any 



230 BIBLE JEWELS. 

further trouble. What a blessing prayer was 
in that case ! 

I will only mention one other case to show 
how blessed the influence of prayer is. 

A man was travelling once in Ireland. 
Night overtook him before he reached the 
place to which he was going. He knocked 
at the door of a cabin by the roadside, and 
asked shelter for the night. They invited 
him in. Just then the owner of the cabin 
was reading a chapter in the Bible, according 
to custom, before having prayer with his fam- 
ily. When the stranger was seated he went 
on with his reading. Then they kneeled 
down to pray, and after that, they retired to 
rest. 

In the morning the same thing took place. 
This simple service seemed to have a great 
effect on the mind of the stranger. He 
thanked the father of the family for his kind- 
ness in giving him lodging for the night ; and 
he thanked him still more for the words he 
had read and the prayers he had offered. 

" They have kept me back from committing 



THE OPAL. 231 

sin," said he. "I came into this part of the 
country to attend the fair at the next town, 
which is to be held to-morrow. My object 
in going was to pass off a quantity of coun- 
terfeit money. This is the first time I ever 
attempted to do such a thing. But after 
hearing your reading and prayers, I see how 
wrong it is, and I won't do it." 

Then he took a parcel of bad money from 
his pocket and threw it in the fire, and went 
home to try and get his living in some honest 
way. 

What a blessing the prayers of that humble 
cottager were to that poor stranger ! This 
Bible jewel, prayer, may be compared to the 
opal, because it brings blessings. 

We have spoken of three things that prayer 
will secure for us, on account of which it may 
be placed among the Bible jewels, and com- 
pared to the opal. The first of these things 
is protection ; the second is help; the third is 
blessing. 

My dear young friends, I want you all to 
get this Bible jewel, and keep it about you 



232 BIBLE JEWELS. 

always. Prayer is the golden key that opens 
heaven. A good man once said, "Prayer 
moves the arm that moves the world." And 
when we learn to pray, we can move the arm 
that moves the world. A Christian man was 
dying once. A friend at his bedside asked 
him how he felt. " I'm too weak for anything 
but to pray ; but, oh ! it's a glorious thing to 
pray," said he. Yes, it is a, glorious thing to 
pray. It is a useful thing, a happy thing, 
a blessed thing to pray. Then learn to pray. 
Pray for everything you need. Especially 
pray for your souls. Pray to Jesus to make 
you his children,' — to teach you to love and 
serve him. Then you will always be safe; 
for 

" Satan trembles when he sees 
The feeblest Christian on his knees." 

" Prayer is the Christian's vital breath 
The Christian's native air ; 
His watchword at the gates of death, 
He enters heaven with prayer." 



IX. 

®{r* Sapphire. 

M A Sapphire," — Exodus xxviii. 18. 



IX. 

** & SJappfei**." — fetots xxbiiu 18. 

The sapphire is a very precious jewel. A 
lady in London has two which are worth one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars apiece. 
The sapphire is of a beautiful blue color, — 
like the color of the sky on a bright clear 
clay. This jewel was the fifth among the 
jewels in the breastplate of the Jewish high- 
priest ; and the second among the foundation 
stones of the heavenly Jerusalem. 

We read in the book of Exodus that, when 
Moses went up to the top of Mount Sinai, 
God wrote, with his own finger, the ten com- 
mandments on two tables, or slabs, of stone, 
and gave them to Moses. Well, the Jewish 
writers tell us that those tables, on which the 
commandments were written, were composed 
of this very jewel that we are now going to 
talk about. They were slabs of sapphire. 

235 



236 BIBLE JEWELS. 

How beautiful they must have looked ! How 
precious and valuable they must have been ! 

In former times, when a man was made a 
bishop in the church, it used to be the cus- 
tom always to put on his finger a ring with a 
jewel in it, and the jewel in the bishop's ring 
was always a sapphire. 

We may take this jewel as representing 
faith, or trust in God. 

Perhaps some of you may be ready to ask 
why I say this ? When we look at a sapphire, 
shining in its beautiful blue, there is nothing 
in it that reminds us of faith any more than 
of hope, or love. Then how can we tell what 
each one of these jewels properly stands for, 
or what it represents ? 

The way in which I make up my mind on 
the subject is this : — I try to find out what 
people, in old times, used to think were the 
properties or qualities of each particular 
jewel, or what they thought these jewels 
were good for. And then I try to find out 
which of the Bible jewels, or the graces which 
a Christian should have, each of these best 



THE SAPPHIRE. 237 

represents. And then I put these two things 
together, — the natural jewel, and the Bible 
jewel that it represents. For instance : we 
have now before us the sapphire. I want to 
find out what this jewel stands for, or repre- 
sents. Well, when I come to read about the 
sapphire, I find that in old times people used 
to think that if you carried one of these jewels 
on your heart, or in your bosom, it would 
have the effect of making you strong. And 
then we have only to ask ourselves which of 
the Bible jewels, or Christian graces, is it 
which has the greatest power to make people 
strong? We see in a moment that it is faith. 
And so we feel safe in saying that the sap- 
phire stands for faith, or trust in God. 

Faith may be compared to the sapphire, 
because it makes us strong. 

I wish to speak of two things for which 
faith makes us strong. 

In the first place, faith makes us strong to 

SUFFER. 

It is surprising how much suffering good 



238 BIBLE JEWELS. 

people have had to bear, and how strong 
their faith in Jesus has made them to bear it. 

I was reading lately of a poor, sick Christian 
woman, who was in what is called the in- 
firmary, or sick ward, of a hospital, in Eng- 
land. A friend who was visiting her, asked 
if she found her trust in Jesus give her com- 
fort in her affliction? Her answer was, — 

M Oh, yes ! my trust in Jesus gives me 
more than comfort. It makes this sick-room 
seem like heaven to me. If you were to 
heap up my bed with gold and silver, — if 
you should offer to give me the queen's car- 
riage and horses, her palace and garden, and 
all the beautiful flowers in it, with health and 
strength to enjoy them, — I would not give 
up my trust in Jesus for all these, or any- 
thing else the world can give. They talk to 
me sometimes about the pains of dying ; but 
what do I care for them when I know that 
death can only take me into the presence of 
Jesus, my best friend?" 

This woman had the Bible jewel of which 
we are speaking. The sapphire of true faith 



THE SAPPHIRE. 239 

was in her breast, and we see how it made 
her strong to suffer. 

There was a family once in great affliction. 
The father had been sick all winter. The 
mother, who was an earnest Christian, had 
labored hard with her needle to get money 
enough to buy food and fuel for the family. 
She trusted in God, and this made her cheer- 
ful. She always told her children that the 
Lord would take care of them and give them 
what they needed. 

But on towards spring her strength began 
to fail. She could not work as much as for- 
merly. At last their money was all gone. 
There was only just wood enough left to 
make one more fire. Every morsel of food 
was gone. A slice of bread was borrowed 
from a neighbor to make a piece of toast for 
the sick husband and father. The children 
were obliged to go to school that morning 
without any breakfast. And as the hungry 
little ones were going out of the house, their 
mother heard Henry, the oldest, a boy about 
ten years old, say to his brother and sister, — 



240 BIBLE JEWELS. 

* I wonder what mother thinks of the Lord, 
now ? " 

It filled that mother's eyes with tears to 
hear this. It brought a swelling feeling up 
into her breast and throat, that seemed as if it 
would choke her. She turned aside into a 
corner of the room, and kneeled down to 
pray. She told God again of their great 
need of food and fuel. She prayed him to 
remember his precious promises never to for- 
sake those who trust in him, and not to leave 
her dear children to think that his promises 
were not true. 

While she was praying she heard a noise 
in the street. She went to the window to see 
what it was. There she saw a load of wood, 
which some kind friend had sent her, thrown 
down at her door. Then she cried again, but 
these were tears of thankfulness. 

Before she had fairly wiped those tears 
away there came a knock at the door. She 
opened it, and there was a man with a large 
basket filled with potatoes and bread and but- 
ter and tea and sugar and a leg of mutton . He 



THE SAPPHIRE. 241 

emptied them on the table, but wouldn't tell 
who sent them. Then that Christian mother 
cried again, a good, long, blessed cry. 

And when the hungry children came home 
at noon, she showed them the wood. Then 
she opened the closet and showed them all 
the good things God had sent them. And 
then they all cried together for joy and glad- 
ness, and Henry threw his arms round his 
mother's neck, and asked her to forgive him 
for what he had said in the morning. Henry 
never forgot the lesson he learned that day. 
It gave him such strong faith in the Bible 
that he never again asked the question, "I 
wonder what mother thinks of the Lord 
now?" 

This good Christian woman had the Bible 
jewel, we are speaking of, in her heart, and 
you see how strong it made her to suffer. 
And it seemed as though, on that day, she 
hung the sapphire of trust in God round the 
necks of her children, and it made them 
strong in the same way. 

Several years ago a ship was burned near 

16 



242 BIBLE JEWELS. 

the mouth of the English channel. Among 
the passengers were a father and mother, and 
their little daughter, a child not many months 
old. When the fire was discovered, and the 
alarm given, there was great confusion, and 
this family became separated. The father 
was picked out of the water and taken to 
Liverpool. The mother, with her infant in 
her arms, was crowded overboard. Just as 
she fell into the water a large piece of the 
wreck floated by. She caught hold of it, and 
managed to get partly on it, so as to support 
herself and her infant. Thus they drifted 
with the tide out of the channel towards the 
sea. 

Late in the afternoon of the same day, a 
vessel from Newport, Wales, bound to New 
York, was moving slowly along in her course. 
There was only a light breeze, and the cap- 
tain was wal king up and down the deck 
whistling for the wind. Presently this float- 
ing piece of the wreck hove in sight, far off 
in the distance. He called the other officers 
and they watched it awhile, wondering what 



THE SAPPHIRE. 243 

it could be. At last, as they were moving 
very slowly, they concluded to send a boat and 
see what that floating object was. The boat 
was accordingly lowered and manned. Away 
it goes ; while all on board the ship stand 
watching it with interest. The men bend upon 
their oars. Soon they can see that it is a 
piece of a wreck ; but before they can see 
whether any one is on it, they hear a voice ; 
it is a female voice singing. They stop their 
rowing and listen. These are the words that 
reach their ears, in a clear, calm, sweet 
voice, — 

"Jesus, Saviour of my soul, 

Let me to thy bosom fly, 
While the waters near me roll, 

While the tempest still is high ; 
Hide me, O my Saviour, hide 

Till the storm of life is past ; 
Safe into the haven guide ; 

Oh ! receive my soul at last. 

" Other refuge have I none ; 

Hangs my helpless soul on Thee ; 
Leave, oh, leave me not alone ; 
Still support and comfort me. 



244 BIBLE JEWELS. 

All my trust on Thee is stayed, 
All my help from Thee I bring ; 

Cover my defenceless head 
With the shadow of thy wing." 

As soon as the singing stopped, the men 
rowed on again. Presently they came up to 
the floating piece of the wreck. Then they 
found the mother and her infant. She was so 
situated that she could not see the boat till it 
came close up to her. She did not know that 
any one was near her but Jesus, while she 
was singing that sweet hymn. 

The sailors took her off the wreck, carried 
her on board their vessel, and then brought 
her to America. Here she took the first op- 
portunity of going back to her husband. 

That mother had this Bible jewel, the sap- 
phire of true faith, or trust in Jesus, with her 
on that floating wreck. And how strong it 
made her to suffer ! What a blessed feeling 
that is which could lead one to trust in Jesus, 
and sing so calmly to him, even when in 
such a dreadful situation as that poor woman 
was ! 



THE SAPPHIRE. 245 

The first reason why faith may be com- 
pared to the sapphire is, because it makes us 
strong to suffer. 

The second reason why faith may be com- 
pared to the sapphire is because it makes us 

STRONG TO SERVE. 

There is nothing gives us so much strength 
to serve God as simple faith or trust in him. 
Abraham had such trust in God that when 
he told him to offer his son Isaac for a burnt- 
offering he went right straight to do it ; and 
he would have done it, too, if God hadn't 
sent his angel to stop him. It was his trust 
in God that gave Samson his great strength. 
It was this that enabled him to take hold of 
a roaring lion, and tear his jaws asunder. 
It was his trust in God that gave him strength 
to wrench out of their place the gates and 
bars of a city, and carry them off on his 
shoulders. It was this that helped him to 
kill a thousand men with the jawbone of an 
ass, and do all the other wonderful things 
that are written of him. 

When David was a shepherd boy, it was 



246 BIBLE JEWELS. 

his trust in God that gave him strength to go 
after the lion and the bear that had stolen a 
lamb from his flock, and to kill them. And 
it was his trust in God that gave him strength 
to fight and kill the great Philistine giant, 
when all the bravest soldiers in Saul's army 
were afraid of him. Abraham had this pre- 
cious jewel, — the sapphire of true faith in 
God ; and so had Samson ; and so had David ; 
and we see how strong it made them to serve 
God. And the Bible is full of illustrations 
of the same kind. 

But will trust in God have the same effect 
now that it had in the days when the Bible 
was written? Yes, just the same. It makes 
people strong to serve God, and do what is 
right, in these days, as much as it used to do 
so in old times. 

Some years ago, there was an Irish sailor 
by the name of Blake. He had a little boy 
named Jimmy, of whom he was very fond. 
Blake was a pious man, and he began early 
to teach his little boy about Jesus. He 
taught him to read, and pray, and commit 



THE SAPPHIRE. 247 

texts of Scripture to memory. He particularly 
tried to teach him simple trust in God. He 
often told him never to be afraid of doing his 
duty ; that however great the danger attend- 
ing it, he might trust God to take care of 
him ; and that, if he should even die in doing 
his duty, he would be a great deal better off 
than to live on in the neglect of it. In this 
way sailor Blake tried to fasten this Bible 
jewel, the sapphire of true trust in God, in 
the bosom of his little boy. How strong it 
made him to serve God noblv, we shall see 
directly. 

Blake was an excellent swimmer, and, as 
he intended Jimmy to be a sailor, he took 
great pains to make him a good swimmer, 
too. When he was only three or four years 
old, his father would often take him in his 
arms and jump overboard. He would hold 
the little fellow up with one arm, and play 
round in the water with the other. In this 
way, by the time Jimmy was twelve years 
old, he took to the water like a duck, and 
felt almost as much at home there as on land. 



248 BIBLE JEWELS. 

About this time, Blake and his son were 
on board an American ship bound from New 
York to Havre, in France. The captain of 
the ship had become so fond of Jimmy that 
he had undertaken to teach him navigation, 
so that he might become an officer. Among 
the passengers in the ship was a gentleman 
who had a dear little daughter. One day- 
she was leaning over the vessel, watching the 
waters as the ship ploughed her way through 
them. Presently, the ship gave a lurch, and 
the little girl was plunged into the sea. Blake 
was on deck. He saw what had taken place, 
and, quick as lightning, he leaped overboard 
and swam towards the struggling child. He 
soon reached her, took hold of her, and 
placed her on his shoulders, so that he might 
have his arms free, and then he struck out 
towards the vessel. While he was doing 
this, however, the ship, which was under full 
sail, had got some distance from him before 
she could be put about. But he didn't care 
for the distance, and breasted the waves man- 
fully. All on board the ship were watching 



THE SAPPHIRE. 249 

him with the greatest interest. Presently, 
they saw him pause a moment, and turn off 
in another direction, as he cried out, — 
"Help! help! a shark!" They looked 
around, and true enough there was one of 
those horrible monsters swimming directly 
towards him. How badly this made them 
all feel ! The sailors took guns and fired at 
the shark, with the hope of driving him off. 
But on he kept towards his prey. The poor 
father was almost frantic. He offered all his 
fortune to any one who would save his child. 
Just then, a little head was seen of some 
one in the water striking out from the ship. 
It was Jimmy. The moment he heard his 
father's cry, and saw his danger, he resolved, 
hero as he was, to try and save him. Unseen 
by any one, he had jumped overboard, and 
was swimming directly towards the shark. 
As soon as he came near it, he made a dive 
in the water, and, taking his sheath-knife 
from the case at his side, he plunged it into 
the belly of the monster. Then, knowing that 
the shark would turn after him, he struck out 



250 BIBLE JEWELS. 

away from the ship, so as to give his father a 
better chance to be saved. Noble little fel- 
low ! The shark floundered about in pain 
for a moment or two, and then darted after 
Jimmy. In the mean time, his father and 
the little girl had reached the ship, and were 
hauled on board. As soon as the brave fel- 
low heard the shout of joy which told him of 
his father's safety, he turned about and made 
straight for the ship. Then all the anxiety 
was for his safety. The captain brought the 
vessel as near to him as possible. Every eye 
was fixed on him. A dozen ropes were 
thrown over for him. He seized one of them, 
and, as they began to haul him up, the captain 
clapped his hands, and cried, "He's safe! 
he's safe ! " — while the tears streamed down 
his weather-beaten cheeks. But, — just then, 
the shark made a tremendous spring, ten or 
twelve feet from the water, and, opening his 
horrid jaws, snapped the body of the brave 
boy asunder. Only his mangled remains 
were drawn on to the deck. 

What a real hero ! what a truly noble little 



THE SAPPHIRE. 251 

fellow that was ! How well he had learned, 
and how faithfully he practised, his father's 
lessons! He had this Bible jewel, — the 
sapphire of true faith, or trust in God, — and 
we see how it made him strong to serve. 

Perhaps some of you may think that he was 
disappointed in his trust because his life was 
not saved. But that is not so. Remember 
one of his father's lessons to him was that " it 
is better to die in doing our duty than to live 
on without doing it." This noble boy died 
in the very act of saving the life of his father. 
And don't you think that the reward God 
will give him in heaven will be a thousand 
times better than any that the captain of the 
ship, or the father of the little girl, could have 
given him on earth? Certainly. 

Let me tell you one more story, to show 
how trust in God will make us strong to 
serve him. This is a story which I remem- 
ber hearing my dear mother, now in heaven, 
tell, when I was a boy, more than forty years 
ago. I have never used it before, but it is 
none the worse for its age. You may depend 



252 BIBLE JEWELS. 

on its being true, for my mother knew the 
persons to whom it refers. When she was a 
young girl, my mother lived in the town of 
Bridgenorth, in England. In that town there 
was a baker, who was a very wicked man. 
He never went to church, but hated religion 
and religious people very much indeed. 

Now it happened that this baker's wife, at 
one time, began to go to the Methodist meet- 
ing on Sundays. She soon became very 
much interested in the subject of religion. 
After a while she became a Christian and 
joined the church. This made her husband 
very angry. He ordered her not to go to 
church any more, but still she went. And it 
was right for her to do so. 

You know when a woman gets married, 
she makes a solemn promise and vow to 
obey her husband. And she is bound to do 
so, in everything that is not clearly contrary 
to the will of God. But this husband was 
ordering his wife to do something that was con- 
trary to the plain command of God. God com- 
mands us to keep the Sabbath day holy, and to 



THE SAPPHIRE. 253 

go to church and worship him. And if a hus- 
band forbids his wife to do this, she has a 
right not to mind him. Her marriage vow 
doesn't bind her here. In such a case she 
must "obey God rather than man," no matter 
what comes of it. 

The baker cursed and swore at his wife 
fearfully. Still she went to church. Then 
he beat her cruelly every Sunday ; but still 
she went to church. One Sunday he became 
so furious as to tell his wife that, if she went to 
church that night, he would heat the oven as 
hot as he could heat it, and put her in and 
roast her alive when she came back. 

His wife knew what a desperate man he 
was, and had no doubt but he intended to do 
what he had threatened ; yet still she resolved 
to go to church. Before going she went up 
into her room and kneeled down to pray. 
She told the Lord what her husband had 
threatened to do, and prayed earnestly that 
he would change his heart, and keep him 
from fulfilling his terrible threatening. Then 
she went quietly to church, trusting to God, 



254 BIBLE JEWELS. 

and not saying a word about it to any one else. 
What a big sapphire that baker's wife carried 
in her bosom, and how strong it made her to 
serve God ! 

Well, as soon as his wife was gone, the 
baker went to work at the oven. He made a 
tremendous fire. He kept the oven full for 
an hour, till it became, like Nebuchadnezzar's 
furnace, " seven times hotter than it was wont 
to be." He waited for an hour, and then 
began to feel restless and excited. He walked 
up and down, and looked at his watch every 
two or three minutes. Then the thought 
occurred to him that perhaps his wife might 
be afraid to come back, and would go home 
with some of her neighbors. So he put on 
his hat and resolved to go and wait till she 
came out of church, and then come home 
with her. He went. He stood by the door 
of the church. He listened, and presently 
heard something said about w a burning, fiery 
furnace." A feeling of terror came over him. 
He slipped quietly into the church, and sat 
down in the seat nearest the door. The 



THE SAPPHIRE. 255 

minister, without knowing what God intended 
to do by that sermon, was preaching about 
Nebuchadnezzar casting the three men, who 
wouldn't worship his idols, into the fiery fur- 
nace.* God made use of that sermon to show 
the baker his horrible wickedness. He trem- 
bled like a leaf, and wept like a child. 

When the sermon was over they sang a 
hymn. Then, as is usual in Methodist 
churches, they invited persons who wished 
to be prayed for, to come up towards the 
pulpit. You can judge what the feelings of 
that faithful woman were when among the 
first who came up was her own husband! He 
walked home with his wife after meeting, in 
tears all the way. As soon as they were in 
the house he asked his wife to pray with him. 
He soon after became a Christian and joined 
the church himself. 

This woman had the Bible jewel of trust 

* Since preaching this sermon, I have learned from a gentleman 
who once lived in Bridgewater, that this minister was the Rev. 
J. Fletcher. He had prepared another sermon for that evening; 
but after going to church, was led, without knowing why, to 
lay that aside, and take up the subject here spoken of. 



256 BIBLE JEWELS. 

in God, this beautiful sapphire, and we see 
how strong it made her to serve God. Faith 
or trust in God is like the sapphire, because 
it makes us strong; strong to suffer, and 
strong to serve. 

Now, my dear children, if you want to have 
this Bible jewel, you must ask Jesus to give 
it to you. You can't find it. You can't buy 
it. Your parents, or teachers, or friends 
can't get it for you, or give it to you. No- 
body but Jesus can give it to you. It is 
only his grace that can put it in your hearts. 
If you pray earnestly to Jesus to give you a 
believing, trusting heart, he will give it to you. 
This precious jewel, trust in Jesus, is all we 
need to make us comfortable and happy here, 
and all we need to save our souls and take 
us to heaven at last. It is faith, simple 
faith, or trust in Jesus, that saves us. The 
Bible says, — "Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved''* This means 
just trust his word, and he will save us. 

"In my hands no price I bring, 
Simply to thy cross I cling." 



THE SAPPHI11E. 257 

This is the only way to heaven. 

Lord Jesus Christ, give this precious Bible 
jewel to all of us, and make us strong to 
suffer, and strong to serve, for thy blessed 
name's sake. Amen ! 

17 



X. 



"The Topaz."— Exodus xxviii. 17. 



X. 

The topaz is another of the beautiful 
jewels mentioned in the Bible. It was the 
second jewel in the first row of the twelve 
precious stones in the breastplate of the 
Jewish high-priest. And among the twelve 
foundation stones of the heavenly Jerusalem, 
mentioned in the last two chapters of the 
Revelation, it was the ninth. 

The topaz is a beautiful jewel, of a bright 
orange, or golden color, though they are 
sometimes found green, blue, and red. It is 
very hard, being next to the ruby in this 
respect. And yet the story is told of one 
of the Roman emperors, named Maximilian, 
who was so strong as to be able to knock a 
horse's teeth out with his fist, and to break 
a horse's leg with a kick of his foot, — that 
he could crumble topazes to powder between 

261 



262 BIBLE JEWELS. 

his imperial fingers. If you and I had seen 
him do it, of course we should believe it, 
but without seeing, I think we may be 
excused for doubting it. 

I saw lately an account of a fine old topaz 
seal, among the curiosities in a museum in Eng- 
land. What is called the field of the seal was 
blue. On this there were three arrows. On 
the top or crest of the seal was the head of a 
dragon on a crown. And round the seal 
was this inscription, or motto, — sola bona 
qtjm honesta. The meaning of this is, Hon- 
esty, which is the only good thing. And this, 
according to the old proverb, might be ren- 
dered, "Honesty is the best policy." 

The topaz is considered to represent hon- 
esty. Now, to be honest means more than 
people generally think. Most people think 
that if they don't cheat when they get a 
chance, and don't steal from those about 
them, they are honest. But true honesty 
means much more than this. True honesty 
means to give to all persons whatever be- 
longs to them. Let us see now, what sort of 






THE TOPAZ. 263 

persons we shall be if we are honest in this 
way. Let us begin with God. 

To whom do our hearts belong? To God. 
Who has the best right to be loved by us ? God . 
Whose will ought we to obey, and whose word 
ought we to mind, more than any one's else? 
God's. That is true. Well, then, if our hearts 
belong to God, and we don't give them to him, 
are we honest? If we ought to love God 
more than any one else, and we don't do it, 
are we honest? If we ought to obey God's 
word, and do God's will, and don't do it, are 
we honest? No; we are robbing God. How 
many are doing this? And so, you see, the 
only truly honest people in the world are the 
real Christians, who are trying to please 
God in everything they do. They give 
their hearts and lives to God, and try to give 
to others everything that belongs to them. 
The Bible topaz, the jewel of true honesty, 
is to be trying always to do just what God 
wants us to do. And the question we have 
now to ask is, why may this Bible jewel be 
compared to honesty? In old times people 



264 BIBLE JEWELS. 

used to carry the topaz about ivith them as a 
charm, or a safeguard against temptation. 

Now the world in which we live, is full of 
temptation. We need something, all the 
time, to keep us safe when we are tempted. 
The Bible topaz, the jewel of true honesty, is 
the very best thing in the world for this pur- 
pose. 

I want to speak of four different kinds of 
temptations, and to show how this precious 
jewel, the Bible topaz, will be a safeguard to 
you against them all. 

The first kind of temptations in which this 
jewel will be a safeguard to us are tempta- 
tions FOR THE EYE. 

The very first temptation that we read of, 
in our world, was to the eye. 

There is the garden of Eden. Oh, how 
beautiful it is ! And right in the midst of 
the garden is "the tree of knowledge." That 
was the only tree of which God had told 
Adam and Eve that they must not eat. But 
Satan had made up his mind to try and get 
them to eat of it, in spite of all that God had 



THE TOPAZ. 265 

said. And the first thing he did, in begin- 
ning his temptation, was to get Eve to look 
at the tree. So we read that "when the 
woman saw the tree, that it was pleasant to 
the eye, and good for food, she took of the 
fruit and did eat." That was the beginning 
of sin and sorrow in our world. It was 
a temptation that began with the eye. If 
Eve had not allowed herself to look at that 
tree, and long for it, she never would have 
been willing to eat of it. Satan stole away 
this Bible jewel of true honesty, from Eve, 
before he could succeed in tempting her. If 
she had onlv held on to this it would have 
been a safeguard to her. It would have 
kept her from looking at the tree, and that 
would have kept her from eating of it. 

There is another case of temptation through 
the eye mentioned in the Bible. When the 
Israelites entered Canaan to conquer it, and 
take possession of it, the first city they came 
to was Jericho. Before they captured it, 
God told them that all the gold and silver 
and brass and iron found in the city were to 



266 BIBLE JEWELS. 

be considered as belonging to him. None 
of the people were to take any of these for 
themselves. They were all to be set apart for 
God. If the people should take any of them, 
it would bringa curse upon them. Well, pres- 
ently the walls of Jericho are thrown down. 
The soldiers go up to destroy the city, and 
gather all the spoil together for God. See, 
there is a soldier, whose name is Achan. He 
enters a rich man's house. He goes from one 
room to another. Now he comes into the room 
where they used to keep their treasures. Here 
he finds a wedge of solid gold, and three hun- 
dred pieces of silver, and a beautiful rich 
cloak or mantle. It was the prettiest thing 
he had ever seen. He stood and looked at 
them. How the gold glittered ! How bright 
the silver looked ! And then, that beautiful 
cloak ! How he would like to have them ! 
" Why can't I ? " he says to himself. w They 
won't be missed out of all the spoil of this 
great city. And then, there's no one here to 
see me. I'll take them." He covers them 
up ; carries them out to his tent ; digs a hole 



THE TOPAZ. 267 

and buries them. Then he goes back and 
helps his comrades to destroy the city. He 
thinks no one has seen him and that he is 
safe. Ah ! he forgot that God had seen it 
all. 

The next time the Israelites went to fight 
they were beaten. Their leader, Joshua, 
prayed to God, and asked him what this 
meant. He said the reason w T as that some 
one had been stealing what belonged to him, 
and he must be found out and punished, or 
else they would have no more victories over 
their enemies. But how could Joshua find 
out one man from among a whole nation ? He 
found him out by casting lots. First the 
tribe was found out to which he belonged ; 
then the family ; and then the man. Achan 
saw that it was no use to deny what he had 
done, so he confessed it all, and was stoned 
to death. 

He didn't have this Bible jewel, the 
topaz of true honesty, with him, or else it 
would have been a safeguard to him in that 
temptation. He would not have allowed 



268 BIBLE JEWELS. 

himself to look at those treasures till he felt 
that he must have them. 

You know when an army is besieging a 
walled city, or fortress, how very careful 
those inside of it are to protect the gates. 
But our souls are like walled cities, or for- 
tresses. Satan is the enemy trying to get in. 
And the eye is one of the gates of entrance. 
We must guard this gate well, if we want to 
keep our souls safe. Job said he had "made 
a covenant with his eyes " not to look on any- 
thing that it was not right to look at. David 
used to pray, — " Turn away mine eyes from 
beholding vanity." And we ought to offer 
David's prayer, and make Job's bargain with 
our eyes not to look on anything that we 
know will do us harm. And if we keep this 
precious Bible jewel, the topaz of true hon- 
esty, about us, it will be a safeguard to us in 
temptations. The first temptations from 
wbi li it will save us are temptations for the 
eye. 

The second hind of temptations in which 
this Bible jewel, the topaz of true honesty , zvill 



THE TOPAZ. 269 

be a safeguard to us, are temptations for 

THE EAR. 

This is another of the principal gates of 
entrance to the soul. And it is a very im- 
portant gate. It ought to be most carefully 
guarded. We receive a great deal of good, 
and a great deal of harm, through the ear. 
If our souls are saved at last, they will be 
saved by what we hear; and if our souls are 
lost at last, they will be lost by what we 
hear. It is no wonder, then, that our Saviour, 
when he was on earth, should have said so 
solemnly to his disciple, — "Take heed how 
ye hear ; " and, "Take heed what ye hear." 

A single leak will sometimes sink a ship. 
A single spark of fire may cause a whole 
magazine of gunpowder to explode. And so 
a single word or sentence has often brought 
a man to the gallows. 

"I don't want to hear naughty words, " 
said a little boy one day. 

"It's no matter," said another boy to him, 
" what Joe Town says ; it's in at one ear, and 
out at the other. " 



270 BIBLE JEWELS. 

"No," said the little boy, "the worst of it 
is, when naughty words get in, they stick; so 
I mean to try and keep them out." 

That little boy was right. Some naughty 
words stick so tight that you never can get 
rid of them. The only way is to try and 
keep them out. " Take heed what you 
hear." 

There is an old Greek book called T The 
Odyssey." It was written by an old blind 
poet whose name was Homer. It is one of 
the oldest books in the world, next to the 
Bible. It contains an account of the wander- 
ings of a wise old Grecian king, whose name 
was Ulysses (part of the Christian name of 
our brave General Grant). Well, this book 
tells about the voyages of Ulysses, as he went 
sailing all up and down the Mediterranean 
sea, trying to get back to his own country. 
He passed through a great many dangers. 
One of these I want to tell you about, be- 
cause it shows that Ulysses had this precious 
jewel that we are now speaking of, and how 
it kept him and his companions from the 



THE TOPAZ. 271 

temptation of hearing what was likely to do 
them harm. 

The story is that Ulysses, in his voyage, 
had to pass by a certain island which was 
very dangerous. Three females lived on that 
island, who were excellent musicians. They 
were called Sirens. They could sing and 
play delightfully ; and their music had such a 
bewitching effect on those who heard it, that 
they would never go away from the island, 
but would stay there till they died. The 
shores of the island were covered all over 
with the bones of multitudes of people who 
had been destroyed by listening to the music 
of those dangerous women. Now, Ulysses 
didn't want to be destroyed himself, or have 
his men destroyed, in this way. So, before 
they came in sight of the island, he told the 
men about the danger they had to pass 
through, and what he was going to do in 
order to avoid it. Then he got some bees- 
wax, and softened it in the sun. With this 
he filled up the ears of all his men, so that 
they could not hear the song of the Sirens. 



272 BIBLE JEWELS. 

Then he told them to bind him fast to the 
mast with chains, and not to undo the chains 
till they got out of sight of the island again, 
however much he might want them to do it. 
When the ears of the men were stopped up, 
and Ulysses was chained to the mast, they 
came in sight of the island, and sailed by it. 
The women came down to the rocks and 
began to sing and play. They expected to 
see the vessel come straight to shore, as 
others had done. But, instead of this, it kept 
directly on its way. The sailors couldn't 
hear a single note of the music. Ulysses 
heard it, and wanted very much to stop and 
go ashore. He motioned to the men to come 
and unfasten him. But, instead of this, as 
he had told them before to do, they only 
came and made the chains tighter about him. 
And so they sailed past that dangerous 
island without receiving any injury. The 
story says that when the Sirens found that 
Ulysses was going by without stopping, they 
sang all the very sweetest songs they knew, 
and, finding it all had no effect, they were so 



THE TOPAZ. 273 

vexed that they took to fretting till they 
died. 

Of course this story is not true. It is 
what we call a fable. But it teaches us a 
great lesson. It shows us that Ulysses had 
this precious jewel that we are speaking 
about, and how safe it kept him from those 
temptations for the ear. It shows that we 
must stop our ears against anything we know 
to be dangerous and wrong, if we want to 
be safe. 

I knew of a young man who was a carpen- 
ter. This is a true story. He was an excel- 
lent workman, and could get the highest 
wages. But he became intemperate. His 
wages were spent for drink, while his family 
was left to suffer. 

One day something led him to think seri- 
ously on the folly of the kind of life he was 
living. He resolved to quit it. He went to 
see his minister and talk with him about it. 
In his minister's study he signed a pledge 
never to drink any more liquor. How glad 
his wife and children were, and what a happy 

18 



274 BIBLE JEWELS. 

home they had ! Things went on in this way 
for about six months. One evening, when he 
was going home from work, he met some of 
his old companions. They persuaded him to 
go with them and take just one glass of 
liquor. He thought one glass would not 
hurt him. He went. When he had taken one, 
he had to take more. He took to drinking 
worse than ever ; and, a few days after, he 
went home drunk, fell down the stairs, broke 
his neck, and died a drunkard. 

Temptations for the ear are the second 
kind of temptations from which this precious 
Bible jewel of true honesty will save us. 

The third hind of temptations from which 
this jewel will save us, are temptations fok 

THE TONGUE. 

Oh, how much sin people commit by means 
of the tongue ! If we could keep from say- 
ing what is wrong, how nicely we should get 
along ! Well, if we carry this Bible jewel, 
the topaz of true honesty, about us all the 
time, it will keep us safe from these temp- 
tations. 






THE TOPAZ. 275 

A young man, we may call him honest 
Frank, who loved the truth, and carried the 
topaz of true honesty about him, was a clerk 
in the office of a rich merchant in New York. 
One day this merchant received from a cus- 
tomer in another city, an order for a large 
and valuable lot of goods. The next day 
another letter came from the same customer, 
recalling that order, and saying they needn't 
send those goods. The merchant handed the 
note to Frank with a pleasant smile, saying, — 

"Frank, I want you to answer this note. 
Please say that the goods were shipped 
before the letter recalling the order was re- 
ceived." 

Frank looked into his employer's face, with 
a sad but firm glance, and said, — 

"I'm very sorry, sir, but I can't do it! " 

" Can't do it ! And pray why not ? " 
asked the merchant, angrily. 

"Because, sir, the goods are in the yard 
now, and it would be telling a lie." 

" I hope you may always be so particular," 
said the merchant, as he turned on his heel 



276 BIBLE JEWELS. 

and went away. Honest Frank did a bold, 
but a right, thing when he took that stand. 
And what do you think was the result ? Did 
he lose his place ? Not at all. The merchant 
was too wise to turn away a clerk who was 
so honest that he wouldn't write a lying 
letter. He knew how valuable such a young 
man was, and so, instead of turning him off, 
he made him his confidential clerk. 

And so Frank found that this Bible jewel 
was not only a safe, but a profitable thing to 
have about him. 

" How is it that I don't seem to hear you 
speak bad words, like the rest of us?" said 
an old sailor, one day, to a boy on board a 
man-of-war. 

"Oh, 'cause I don't forget my Captain's 
orders," answered the boy. 

" Captain's orders ! " said the sailor. w Why, 
I didn't know he'd given you any." 

"Yes, but he has though, and I keep 'em 
safe here,' 9 laying his hand on his breast. 
"Here's one of 'em," said Jack, speaking 
slowly and distinctly, — 



THE TOPAZ, 277 

Wf I say unto you, swear not at all ; neither 
by heaven, for it is God's throne ; nor by the 
earth, for it is his footstool; neither by Je- 
rusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 
Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, for 
thou canst not make one hair white or black. 
But let your communication be yea, yea; 
nay, nay ; for whatsoever is more than these 
cometh of evil." 

"Them's from the good old log-book, I 
see," said the sailor, "Very good, shipmate. 
Keep on that track, and it'll bring you safe 
into the harbor." 

That young sailor had this Bible jewel, 
and it was keeping him safe from temptations 
of the tongue. 

The fourth and last kind of temptations we 
are to speak of, from which this jewel keeps 
us, are temptations for the hand. 

I mean by this, the temptation to take or 
to keep what does not belong to us. If we 
keep this jewel about us, — that is, if we re- 
member God's presence, and try honestly to 



278 BIBLE JEWELS. 

please him, — it will save us from ever taking 
or keeping what does not belong to us. 

Let me tell you a story to show how this 
jewel saved a boy from taking what was not 
his. 

A little boy, whose name was Jim, was 
employed by a gentleman to weed some beds 
in his garden. There was a cherry-tree in 
the garden full of nice ripe fruit. He was 
told not to take any of the cherries. He 
worked away diligently till it got towards 
noon, and the sun became hot, and he began 
to feel both hungry and thirsty. Then he 
looked towards the cherry-tree. How ripe 
and juicy the rich, red fruit seemed ! He 
thought how nice it would taste ! He 
looked round. There was no one to see him. 
Something seemed to whisper, * Just one 
handful won't be missed." He went towards 
the tree, but felt very much afraid. If the 
wind rustled the leaves, he would stop and 
tremble, and look round, as if some one was 
coming after him. Still he went on, and 
reached up his hand to take hold of one of 



THE TOPAZ. 279 

the branches. Just then, a little bird up in 
the tree began to chirp. It sounded to him 
like, "Jem, Jem." He thought the bird 
was calling to him. His hand fell down. He 
walked quietly away from the tree. He 
remembered the commandment, " Thou shalt 
not steal." Then he went into a corner 
behind some bushes. He kneeled down, and 
asked God to forgive him for thinking, for a 
moment, of stealing ; and prayed for strength 
to resist temptation. Then he went back to 
his work and felt happy. 

Presently, he heard the little bird up the 
tree chirping again. "Oh, yes," said he; 
"you may call 'Jem, Jem' as much as you 
like ; I'm not afraid of you now." 

This little boy had the Bible jewel we are 
speaking of. He almost lost it when he took 
hold of the tree. But God helped him not to 
lose it, and it saved him from taking what 
did not belong to him. It was a safeguard 
to him from the temptation for the hand. 

Let me give you one more story to show 
how this jewel saved a boy from keeping 



280 BIBLE JEWELS. 

what was not his, just as it kept little Jim 
from taking what did not belong to him. 

Mrs. Morton was a widow woman who had 
an only son, named Abel, about seventeen 
years old. They lived in a small hut, in the 
outskirts of the village, and were very poor. 
Abel had never learned a trade, but he was 
an honest, industrious boy. He loved his 
mother very much, and was always ready to 
work for her when he could get any work to 
do. One winter his mother had been very 
sick, and, as he had been obliged to stay at 
home and nurse her, he had not been able to 
work much, and they were very much in 
want of clothing, and food, and fuel, and 
everything. 

One afternoon, Abel went into the village 
to see if he could get some work, and earn a 
little money. He went from one house to 
another all through the village, but could get 
nothing to do. 

Hungry and sorrowful, faint and sick at 
heart, he turned his steps towards home. He 
walked slowly on, and was just turning into 



THE TOPAZ. 281 

the lane that led towards his mother's cottage, 
when his foot struck against something in the 
road. He stooped to pick it up, and found 
it was a small silk purse. It was quite 
heavy. He shook it, and the clear jingle 
that it made told him it was filled, not with 
copper, but with silver. 

The poor fellow did not stop to open it, 
for night was coming on, and he knew his 
mother would be anxious about him. As 
soon as he entered the cottage, he drew the 
purse from his pocket, and threw it on the 
table near his mother. 

"What is that?" she asked, as she heard 
the rattle of the money. 

"A purse, mother. I found it on the road, 
just at the corner of our lane." 

A candle w T as lighted. The purse was 
emptied. It was found to contain twenty 
silver half-dollars. 

"Ten dollars," said Abel. "I wonder if 
we can find w T ho lost it ? " 

"Isn't there some name on the purse?" 
asked Mrs, Morton. 



282 BIBLE JEWELS. 

Abel looked on the inside of the clasp, 
which was lined with red morocco, and there 
he saw the name of "John Thompson." 

Mr. Thompson was one of the richest men 
in that neighborhood. He owned a large 
farm ; kept a great number of cows, and sup- 
plied the village and neighborhood with milk 
and vegetables. 

" Ah ! how easily Mr. Thompson could 
spare this ! " said Abel. " It wouldn't be any 
loss to him, and we need it so much ! " 

M That's true," said his mother ; " it wouldn't 
be any loss to him ; but it would be a great 
loss to us if we should keep it." 

" How so, mother ? " 

"Why, don't you see, we should lose our 
honesty and honor. That is worse than 
losing money. The next time you met Mr. 
Thompson you would be afraid to look him 
in the face. There would be a blot upon 
your character, and a thorn in your pillow at 
night that would disturb your rest. Surely 
you wouldn't be willing to keep it, Abel?" 






THE TOPAZ. 283 

"No, mother; I wouldn't keep it for any- 
thing." 

Bright and early the next morning, Abel 
hastened over to Mr. Thompson's house, and 
gave him the purse. 

He seemed pleased to receive it. He asked 
Abel if he could write and cipher; and, find- 
ing he could do both very well, he told him 
he wanted an honest person who could write 
and keep accounts, to go to market, and sell 
things for him. 

" I have thought of employing you for some 
time, Abel, but I wanted first to be sure that 
you were honest. I took this way of finding 
it out. I put the purse in the road on pur- 
pose, when you were coming home last night. 
I stood behind the bushes, and saw you pick 
it up. I tried two other young men in the 
same way, but they both kept the money, so 
I couldn't trust them ; but I'm sure I can 
trust you. And now I'll give you constant 
employment, and forty dollars a month as 
your wages." 

Abel burst into tears. He couldn't speak. 



284 BIBLE JEWELS. 

He only pressed Mr. Thompson's hand. 
Then he flew home to tell his mother the 
good news. And when he got through he 
said, — 

" O mother ! only to think if I had kept 
the money ! " 

Surely he found it true that w honesty is 
the best policy." 

Abel had this precious Bible jewel, — the 
topaz of true honesty, — and it saved him 
from temptation for the hand, — from keep- 
ing what did not belong to him. 

Now, we have spoken of how many differ- 
ent kinds of temptations from which this 
jewel will save us? Four. What are the 
first? Temptations for the eye. What are 
the second ? Temptations for the ear. What 
are the third? Temptations for the tongue. 
And what are the fourth ? Temptations for 
the hand. 

If you want to keep this jewel about you 
all the time, so as to be kept from temptation, 
there is one text you must always remember. 
It is this, w Thou God seest me ! " Oh, pray 



THE TOPAZ. 285 

God to write that text on your memory. 
Then you will always have this Bible jewel 
— the topaz of true honesty — about you. 
And when you are tempted to do anything 
wrong, you will say with Joseph, "How 
can I do this great wickedness and sin against 
God?" 



, 



XI. 

1 An Agate," — Exodus xxviii. 19. 



XI. 

•< gin SJgate." — tobtts xxbuu 10. 

This is a precious stone, more common 
than most of those we have spoken of. It is 
not of any one particular color. Like the 
coat that old Jacob gave to his favorite son 
Joseph, it is of many colors. It seems to 
have been made by putting together one 
layer after another of substances of different 
colors. White and yellow, and brown, and 
red, and black, and green, may be found in 
it, not all mingling together, as they do in 
the opal, but in different lines, or layers, or 
rin^s. Sometimes these different colors are 
seen in a sort of wavy lines, that look like 
ribbons. Sometimes they are in zigzag 
lines, like the walls of a fortification. And 
sometimes they are in circles, looking just as 
if different colored rings had been dropped in 
when the substance of which the abates are 

19 289 



290 BIBLE JEWELS. 

made was in a melted state. And on this 
account it often happens that when an agate 
is cut and polished, you may see in it a 
strange sort of resemblance to some particu- 
lar object or form. There is one of these in 
the British Museum, in London, which has 
in it a likeness of Chaucer, one of the first 
and most famous of the English poets. There 
is one in the church of St. Mark's, at Venice, 
representing the head of a king, with a crown 
on it. 

In a work on precious stones, there is a 
description given of an agate, on which may 
be seen the figure of a bishop, with a mitre 
on his head, in the middle of a complete 
circle. If you hold the stone in your hand, 
and turn it round a little, another figure 
appears ; and if you turn it a little more, you 
may see the figure of a man and woman. 

We sometimes hear about people finding 
'* sermons in stones ; " and we know that this 
may be done, for here we have been, for two 
winters, finding children's * sermons " in the 
precious " stones " mentioned in the Bible. 



THE AGATE. 291 

And,' from what has just been said about the 
agate, we see that it is possible to find pic- 
tures in stones, as well as sermons. 

The agate was one of the jewels in the 
breastplate of the Jewish high-priest. It was 
the middle one in the third row, the eighth 
jewel out of the twelve in the breastplate. 

In old times people used to think that this 
jewel had the power of securing success. It 
was supposed that if persons only had an 
agate with them they would be sure to get 
the victory over their enemies. The agate 
was considered as the conqueror's jewel. And 
now what is the Bible jewel that will always 
give us the victory, — that will make us 
" more than conquerors through him that hath 
loved us " ? It is the grace of God. This is 
the Bible jewel that we may compare to the 
agate. And there are two things over which 
this jewel, the grace of God, w T ill make us 
conquerors, if we have it in our hearts. 
Each of these things begins with the letter S. 

The first thing over which this Bible jewel , 



292 BIBLE JEWELS. 

the grace of God, will make us conquerors, is 

SIN. 

The Bible tells us that we are born in sin. 
Our hearts are full of sin. Unless we get 
this sin driven out, and overcome, we never 
can be happy, either in this world or in the 
world to come. We read a great deal in the 
Bible about the wrestling, and struggling, 
and fighting, that Christians have to do. 
And the thing they have to fight against, all 
the time, is sin. When two people are fight- 
ing, it generally happens that they keep on 
at it till either one or the other of them gets 
the victory. And so it is in the great battle 
we have to fight with sin. Either we must 
conquer it, or it will conquer us. But we 
never can conquer sin ourselves. And there 
is nothing that will give us the victory over 
it but the grace of God. This is the real 
agate, the Bible jewel, that will give us the 
victory. 

Let me tell you about a young man, whose 
name was Harold Thompson. He went from 
his home in the country to enter into business 



THE AGATE. 293 

in New York. He was soon tempted to 
commit sin ; but he bad tbis Bible jewel with 
him, and you will see how it made him con- 
queror. 

"Harold, what are you going to do with 
yourself to-morrow?" said one of his com- 
panions to him, as he was brushing his shoes, 
one Saturday evening. 

Harold had been admitted, only a few days 
before, as a clerk in a large store ; and the 
older clerks looked upon him as "very 
green," as they called it. Looking from his 
shining boot, he said, very modestly, — 

" I shall go to church, Frank." 

The young man burst out into a laugh, and 
said, — 

"Well, I declare, you are green. Why, 
none of our fellows think of going to church. 
We are going to the fishing-ground, down 
the bay, in a splendid steamer. You'd better 
go along. It won't cost much." 

" It will cost more than I can afford to 
spend," said Harold, brushing away pretty 
smartly at his boot. 



294 BIBLE JEWELS. 

"You are on the poor list, then ?" asked 
another of the clerks, in a sneering tone. 

"Out of cash, eh?" 

"I'm not rich, certainly," said Harold, 
quietly. " Still, I have a few dollars of my 
own ; and I expect to have a monthly allow- 
ance from home till I begin to receive 
wages." 

"You're stingy, then," said Clement. 

"Not exactly," replied Harold. 

"But you said you couldn't afford to go 
fishing with us, to-morrow," said Frank, 
" when the trip needn't cost you more than a 
dollar, dinner and all." 

" It wasn't the cost in money, that I meant 
to say I couldn't afford," replied Harold. 

"What did you mean, then? It wouldn't 
cost you anything else," said Frank. 

"Yes, it would," said Harold, very se- 
riously ; " it would cost me a guilty con- 
science." 

Frank looked surprised at this bold speech ; 
but Clement laughed, and said, in a sneering 



THE AGATE. 295 

way, "Take care, Frank; you've caught a 
saint." 

"No, I don't profess to be much of a saint," 
said Harold ; "but I believe it wrong to break 
the Sabbath, and Iivon't do it" 

"But, Harold," said Frank, pleadingly, 
" it can't be very wrong to take a trip on the 
water on Sunday, after being shut up in a 
store all the week. Come, go with us to- 
morrow, fustjbr once" 

"No, not for once," said Harold. "My 
father has often told me that sin is like the 
camel, which asked the cobbler to let him put 
his nose into his stall. The cobbler gave 
him leave ; and then the cam-el, after putting 
in his nose, pushed in his head, and then his 
foot, and finally walked in and turned the 
cobbler out. I mean, if I can, to keep out 
the camel's nose. I won't begin to do wrong." 

" Well, you are a saint, and no mistake," 
said Clement. "I guess you won't do for our 
set." 

"I suppose not," said Harold, quietly, as 
the others left the room. 



296 BIBLE JEWELS. 

That young man had this Bible jewel, — 
the true agate, — the grace of God, — and it 
made him conqueror over sin. It was a great 
victory he gained on that Saturday evening. 

Now, I want to tell you about a little boy 
who had this jewel, and to show you what a 
glorious victory over sin he gained by it. 

This little fellow's name was Gaspar Mor- 
gan. He lived in Boston, and was very poor. 
One bitter cold day in winter he was going 
along the street, ragged and hungry. Pres- 
ently he came up to a baker's shop, and 
stood awhile to look in. His little cold nose 
was flattened against the great window-pane ; 
his blue fingers were thrust into his empty 
pockets ; and his bare toes were out upon the 
frosty pavement, as he stretched up and 
looked longingly on the many good things 
that were there. Inside the shop he saw 
John, the baker's boy, dealing out hot loaves, 
and nice, fresh-looking cakes, to a crowd of 
customers. 

w Oh, aint them cakes jolly ! " cried Gaspar, 
in his delight, forgetting himself, and speak- 






THE AGATE. 297 

ing out aloud. "Wouldn't I like to be a 
baker's boy ! Oh, my ! see that fellow cram 
down the gingerbread ! If 'twas only me ! 
Crackie ! " And he snapped his fingers, and 
jumped half his height up into the air, in 
the joy which the very thought gave him. 
Then he put his face to the window again. 
He was so busy talking to himself that he did 
not see a little old man, almost hidden in a 
great fur overcoat, who was standing by, and 
seemed to be very much amused in watching 
him, and hearing w T hat he said. 

Presently Gaspar saw a servant in the 
store loading a basket. "Oh, dear," he 
sighed, "wouldn't it be nice to carry that 
basket home to mother and little Sue ? How 
mother would cry, and how Sue would eat 
like a house afire ! " And Gaspar took his 
nose away from the window, to watch the 
servant as he came down the steps with the 
basket. But just then a large man, with a 
basket on his arm, was hurrying up the steps, 
and, running against the servant, upset his 
basket, and spilled all its contents on the 



298 BIBLE JEWELS. 

ground. This made him very angry, and, 
hastily gathering up the scattered pieces, he 
rushed back into the store to give the man a 
■scolding for his awkwardness. 

Gaspar stood looking on while this took 
place, and as soon as the door was closed he 
saw something white on the pavement. He 
sprung to it, and picked it up with a cry of 
joy. "Crackie!" said he, "if it isn't a 
whopping big loaf of bread ! Warm as an 
oven, too ! Won't mother and Sue have a 
feast ! " And the little fellow danced for 

joy. 

But, all at once, his countenance fell, and 
he looked carefully around. He had been 
well taught by his pious mother. She had 
often told him that it would be better to 
starve than to take what is not our own. 
Gaspar remembered those words now. There 
was a great conflict going on in his heart. 
But he had this conqueror's jewel with him, 
and it gave him the victory over sin. He 
choked down all the feeling that made him 
want to keep the loaf. With a determined 



THE AGATE. 299 

look on his face, he went bravely into the 
baker's shop. There was the servant still 
scolding away at the big man who had upset 
his basket. 

"Here, mister," said Gaspar, pulling the 
servant by the sleeve, " here's the loaf of 
bread you dropped." 

The man was so full of anger that he hard- 
ly knew what he was about. 

"My bread, you young rascal!" cried 
he; "and how much have you stolen be- 
sides?" 

"Aren't you ashamed, to speak to the boy 
in that way ? " said a gentleman standing by. 

" That's all the thanks I get for being hon- 
est," said Gaspar to himself, as he walked 
sorrowfully along towards home. But, be- 
fore he had gone very far, he heard a quick 
step behind him, and a hand was laid gently 
on his shoulder. Turning round, he saw an 
old gentleman, in a big fur coat. 

" Well, my little man," said he, " why 
didn't you carry home the bread to mother 
and little Sue?" 



300 BIBLE JEWELS. 

Gaspar turned red, and looked confused, 
and the merry old man burst into a fit of 
laughter. 

"Ho, ho !" said he, "you didn't know that 
somebody was looking at you all the time. 
Give me your hand, my boy. I saw it all, 
and it's lucky for you that you didn't yield to 
the temptation. I should have nabbed you 
as quick as a wink ; for if there's anybody 
I'm down on it's a thief." 

"I hope I shall never do so again," said 
Gaspar, trembling to think of the danger he 
had just escaped. 

"I'll trust you for that," said he. "Now 
take me to your home, and I'll help you, or 
my name isn't Nicholas Green." 

Gaspar told his new friend his sad story, — 
how his father had died, and left his mother 
to take care of the children ; how she grew 
sick, and little Susie cried for bread, and 
there was none to give her. 

Mr. Green went to see his mother. He 
became a warm friend of the family. He 
gave them all they needed for their comfort. 



THE AGATE. 301 

He hired new lodgings for them, and little 
Susie, a pretty, black-eyed girl, soon grew 
plump and rosy. He got Gaspar a good sit- 
uation in a store, and there, by his honesty, 
and strict attention to business, he rose and 
prospered, till he is now a well-known, suc- 
cessful merchant in Boston. 

Thus we see how this Bible jewel, the 
grace of God, made Gaspar Morgan, and 
Harold, the clerk, conquerors over sin. This 
is the first S. Now for the next. 

The second thing over which this jewel will 
make us conquerors, is Satan. This is the 
next S. 

Satan is the great tempter. The Bible 
tells us that he "goeth about as a roaring 
lion, seeking whom he may devour" or de- 
stroy. The only way in which Satan can 
destroy us, or do us any harm, is by tempt- 
ing us to sin. And he cannot hurt us, even 
in this way, unless we yield to the tempta- 
tion. If we only have this Bible jewel, the 
grace of God, with us, it will make us con^- 
querors over Satan. And then, although he 



302 BIBLE JEWELS. 

is so powerful, and so wicked, and although 
he tries so hard to injure us and keep us 
from getting to heaven, he won't be able to 
do us any harm. The Bible says to us, — 
ff Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." 
This precious agate, the grace of God, is 
what we need to help us in resisting Satan. 

But perhaps some of you are ready to ask, 
How can we tell when he comes to us, and in 
what way are we to resist him ? These are 
very important questions. I will try to show 
you how you are to do this. 

Satan never comes to us so that we can see 
him, as one soldier stands before another 
when they are going to fight together. Satan 
is a spirit, a fallen angel ; and we can't see 
angels or spirits. The way in which he 
tempts us is by putting bad thoughts into 
our minds. He stirs up in our hearts the 
desire to do, or to get something that is 
wrong. If we give way to that thought or 
desire, and try to do, or to get the wrong 
thing, then we give way to Satan. He gets 
the victory over us. He does us great harm, 



THE AGATE. 303 

and, if we go on giving way to him in this 
manner, he will destroy our souls forever. 
Whenever, then, you have a bad thought 
come into your mind, — whenever bad feel- 
ings or desires are in your hearts, — you may 
be sure that Satan is busy with you. Those 
bad thoughts, bad feelings, bad desires are 
his work. You are resisting Satan when you 
strive to drive away those bad thoughts, and 
not to yield to those bad feelings, or desires. 

Let me show the way in which this work 
of resisting Satan is to be done. 

The Rev. Dr. B was a good minister 

of the gospel, in Scotland. One cold day in 
winter, he had a pile of wood sawed, and 
split, in his wood-shed. Late that night, as 
he was sitting in his study, he thought he 
heard a rattling sound near the wood, in that 
pile. He went softly to the window, and, 
peeping through the curtains, he saw a woman 
filling her apron with the wood, which she 
carried hastily away. He sat down again, 
and went on with his study. Very soon he 
heard the same noise. He looked again, and 



304 BIBLE JEWELS. 

there was the same woman filling her apron 
again, as full as it would hold. He sighed, 
as he went back to his study, thinking to 
himself, w Well, 1 suppose it is some poor 
creature whose fire has gone out, and whose 
children are perhaps crying on account of the 
cold. But I wish she had come and asked 
for the wood, instead of yielding to the 
temptation of Satan by stealing it." Still he 
felt more of pity than of anger towards the 
poor woman. 

He had not been studying long before he 
was startled by a heavy crash of falling wood. 
He hastened to the window, and there he 
saw the same poor woman. She had brought 
back one of the loads of wood she had taken 
away, and had thrown it down on the pile 
where it belonged. He now felt more pity 
for the woman than ever, and a greater 
interest in her. He thought what a conflict 
must have been going on in that woman's 
mind, and he was glad to see that it was 
likely to end in the right way. He waited a 
while at the window, to see if she would 



THE AGATE. 305 

come back again, or whether she was going 
to divide the matter with Satan, and make it 
a sort of drawn battle, in which neither side 
would be wholly beaten, and neither get a 
decided victory. But very soon, back she 
came again, with the other load of wood. 
She threw it down on the pile. Then she 
shook her apron vigorously, as much as to 
say, "There, go. Anything stolen brings a 
curse, I know; and I don't want even the 
dust of that curse to cling to me." 

Then the doctor slipped quietly down- 
stairs, and followed the poor woman, at a 
distance, that he might know where she 
went, and who she was. He watched her 
till he saw the cottage she went into. Then 
he knew all about her. It was Mrs. ^Y , 



who belonged to his church. She was a poor 
widow, a good woman, but struggling in 
great poverty to bring up a large family of 
children. And he was delighted to think 
that, though at first Satan had got the advan- 
tage over her, yet she had rallied so nobly to 
the fight, and had driven him clear off the 
20 



306 BIBLE JEWELS. 

field. She had gained a splendid victory 
over him. 

The first thing after breakfast, the next 

morning, the doctor went to Mr. C , who 

kept a wood-yard, and ordered him to send 
a load of his best wood, sawed and split, to 

Mrs. W ; but not, on any account, to 

let her know where it came from. Of course 
the doctor said not a word about what had 

taken place the night before. Mr. C 

promised to keep the secret about the load of 

wood. But Mr. C 's carter happened to be 

within hearing when this conversation took 
place. He had not promised to keep the 
secret, and did not feel bound to do so. He 
took the load of wood to Mrs. W 's cot- 
tage, and threw it down before her door. He 
told her it was all paid for by a friend. She 
wanted to know who had sent it. The carter 

told her that Mr. C , his employer, had 

directed him to say that he had strict orders 
not to tell where it came from. But when he 
found how anxious she was to know who sent 
the wood, he said to her, — 



THE AGATE, 307 

" I'll tell you about it, Mrs. W . You 

see, I happened to be near the office this 
morning, when the order was left for this 
wood, and I heard all that was said about it; 
but, as I didn't promise not to tell, I feel at 

liberty to do so. It was Dr. B , the 

minister, who sent the wood" 

Poor Mrs. W ! how badly she felt 

when she heard this ! She was sure that her 
minister had seen her stealing his wood the 
night before. She resolved to go and see 
him, to confess the wrong she had done, and 
ask his forgiveness, as well as to thank him 
for his great kindness in sending her the 
wood. She went at once. She expressed 
her gratitude for his kind present. With 
many tears she told him how Satan had taken 
advantage of her poverty and want to tempt 
her to take the wood ; and how at first she 
had yielded to the temptation, and had broken 
the eighth commandment. 

"But," she added, "though my house was 
dark and cold, and my heart was full of sor- 
row at the sight of my poor shivering little 



308 BIBLE JEWELS. 

ones, I could not keep the wood, when I had 
taken it. My conscience would not let me. 
O sir ! will you forgive me ? " 

The doctor could not keep the tears back 
from his own eyes, as he pressed her hand, 
and said, — 

"Pray don't say any more about it, my 
good friend. I saw you struggling with 
Satan last night, and you beat him in two 
fair stand-up fights. May God bless you, 
and give you the victory in every tempta- 
tion!" 

That woman had this Bible jewel. She 
almost lost it once ; but she recovered her 
hold upon it, and it made her a conqueror 
over Satan. 

Now I want to tell you about a little girl 
who fought with Satan, and got the victory 
over him, by the help of this same Bible 
jewel. 

The little girl's name was Amy. She lived 
out at service. Her mother was dead ; her 
father was poor, and put her to live in a good 



THE AGATE. 309 

Christian family, where she had a very com- 
fortable home. 

Amy was a good, industrious girl. She 
learned to knit ; she scoured the knives, and 
went on errands, and made herself generally 
useful. She tried to be faithful, because she 
really wanted to please her Saviour. She 
knew that though the lady she lived with did 
not always see her, yet God did. Her mother 
had gone to heaven to be with Jesus, and 
sometimes she used to think that if she tried 
to be a good girl, perhaps Jesus would tell 
her mother, and that would be very pleasant 
to her. 

One day Amy let a cup fall out of her 
hands, and broke it. It belonged to the best 
set of China that the lady had. Amy felt 
very sorry, and was greatly frightened. She 
was not a careless girl. She tried to be care- 
ful in attending to all her duties. But acci- 
dents will sometimes happen even to the most 
careful, and it really was not her fault that 
the cup was broken. She picked up the 
pieces, and ran out of doors with them. 



310 BIBLE JEWELS. 

Then she began to cry, "Oh, dear, dear, 
what shall I do ! " There was but one right 
thing for her to do ; that was to go and tell 
the mistress of the house what had happened. 
But she was afraid of displeasing her mis- 
tress, and of being scolded or punished. It 
was wrong for her to give way to this feeling. 
For though we ought to be afraid of displeas- 
ing our earthly friends, we ought to be much 
more afraid of displeasing God, our best, our 
heavenly Friend. 

Amy could not make up her mind to go 
and tell what she had done. But there were 
the pieces of the broken teacup staring her 
in the face. "What shall I do!" she said 
again to herself. Then it seemed as if some 
one whispered in her ear, "Dig a hole in the 
ground, and bury up the pieces, and no one 
will know anything about it." 

Who was that whispering this in Amy's 
ear? It was Satan. Yes, Amy had to fight 
a battle with Satan, now ; and either she 
must conquer him, or he would conquer her. 
Let us watch this fight, and see how it ended, 



THE AGATE. 311 

for we all have just the same sort of battles 
to fight, with just the same enemy. 

I suppose Amy didn't think that it was 
Satan who was telling her to do this, or else 
I don't think she would have done it. But 
she listened to that whisper. She dug a hole, 
and put the broken teacup in it, and covered 
it up. I suppose this pleased Satan very 
much. He seemed to be having the battle 
all his own way. 

But how did Amy feel? Why, very un- 
comfortable. She went to bed ; but she 
could not keep from crying. She put her 
head under the sheet, and cried herself to 
sleep. 

When she woke the next morning, the 
very first thing she thought of was that 
broken cup, and those pieces hid in the hole, 
and then she thought of God. He had seen 
her dig that hole, and put the pieces in it. 
He knew that she was trying to deceive her 
mistress. This would grieve him. He 
could not look on her with pleasure while 



312 BIBLE JEWELS. 

she was trying to deceive. This made her 
feel worse than before. She said to her- 
self, — 

"I can't stand this. I'd rather be punished 
than be a deceiver. I'd rather be punished 
than do what I know displeases ray heavenly 
Father. I'll go and tell my mistress all about 
it, this very minute." 

Then she slipped on her dress, and ran 
downstairs, without stopping to put her 
shoes and stockings on. She seemed to be 
afraid that Satan might come and tempt her 
again, and she wouldn't give him a chance. 
She went into the yard and dug up the pieces 
of the broken teacup ; then she went into 
the chamber of her mistress, and told her all 
that had happened , finishing up by saying, — 

"And so I had a great deal rather tell you 
all, even though I get punished, than to keep 
hiding the pieces, and not tell." 

"I am very sorry that the cup is broken," 
said the good lady, "but I am very, very 
thankful that you came of yourself and told 
me. You must fear God above everybody, 



THE AGATE. 313 

Amy, and fear him all the time, and then 
Satan will never get the victory over you." 

Amy had this Bible jewel, and it was this 
— the grace of God — which helped her when 
she woke up in the morning, to go and tell the 
whole truth. And it was in this way that 
she conquered Satan, and gained a glorious 
victory over him. 

It is often the case, when there is a war 
going on, that some people are not obliged to 
take either one side or the other. This is 
called being a neutral. But, in this war with 
sin and Satan, we are obliged to take part on 
one side or the other. There are no neutrals 
here. Jesus said, "He that is not with me 
is against me." You must either fight with 
Jesus against Satan, or with Satan against 
Jesus. But do any of you want to be on 
Satan's side in this warfare? No. You 
want to be on the right side, the safe side, 
the side that is sure to win. Then ask Jesus 
to give you this Bible jewel, — the true agate, 
— the grace of God. This will help you to 
get the victory over sin, and over Satan, and 



314 BIBLE JEWELS. 

make you at last ,f more than conquerors " 
over all the enemies of your soul. You will 
enter heaven, saying, "Thanks be to God 
who giveth us the victory, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ ! " 






INDEX 



INDEX. 



sin, 



Pag* 

266, 267 

. 289 

290 

291 

291 

292 

301 

. 127 

127, 128 

129 

130 

140, HI 

Amethyst, the Bible, keeps us from tempting others to 

drink, 141 

leads us to stop drinking, . . . 161 

Avalanches loosening, learning to drink like, . . . 175, 176 



Achan tempted through the eye, . 
Agate, the, its color and beauty, 
pictures in, . 
the conqueror's jewel, 
Bible, the grace of God, 

makes us conquerors over 
gives victory over Satan, 
Amethyst, the, its color and meaning, 
the temperance jewel, . 
the Bible, the fear of God, 

keeps us from learning to drink 
Animals never learn to drink, 



" Battles, Old," and his last victory, .... 

Baker, the, of Bridgenorth, 

Bees, the, examples of industry, ..... 
losing industry with hope, 

Blake, Jimmy, story of, 

Breastplate, the Jewish high-priest's, .... 

Captain, the sea, helped by prayer, 

Christian, a liberal, Lady Huntingdon, . . . . 

Pastor Oberlin, ..... 

John Wesley, 

how to find if one is, 

Christians, the early, power of, to bear trials, . 

need polishing, why, 

the beauty of, seen in the transfiguration, . 

all from Christ, .... 
Chrysostom, an example of courage from hope, 

Cleopatra and her pearl, 

Comfort, in Jesus, 

for the lost, in Jesus, 

a poor woman's, in the Bible, .... 
Curtis, Johnny, and sister kept from harm by the Bible 
ruby, 



170-173 
251, 255 
183 
183, 184 
241-250 
73 



Dark, the, little boy not afraid in, . 
Dahomey, King of, missionaries saved from, 

Diamond, a, the Christian like, 

for its hardness, . 
the, makes marks not to be rubbed out, 
a Christian like, for its brightness, 

317 



217-219 
85 
87 
86 
94 
76 
28 

. 14, 15 
13 

190, 191 
46 
64 
65 
66 

119-123 

189, 190 
214, 215 
74 
74 
79 
83 



318 INDEX. 

Page 

Diamond, the, what makes it bright, • . . 84 

and the coal, the difference between, • . 84 

Diamonds, counterfeit, how to tell, 91 

Diamond, the Brazilian negro's, and how it was tested, • 92, 93 

a true, shines in water, 95-97 

the, and its beauty, ...... 12 

beauty of, depends on light, . • . . 12, 13 
Orloff, . . .;..-.. 17, 18 
Grand Tuscan, ....... 19 

Pitt, 20 

how long to polish, ..... 28 
Drinker, a moderate, brought to the gallows, . . . 138, 139 
Drinking, the habit of, like Samson's strength, . . 162, 163 

Donkey, the, industrious by hope, 185 

Doctor, the drunken, and his lady patient, .... 144 
Dutchman's, the, experience, ....... 148, 149 

Ear, the, temptations for, 269 

Eye, the, Eve tempted through, 265 

Achan tempted through, 266, 267 

Emerald, the, its color and value, 179 

represents hope, 180 

as hope gives courage, . . • • • 188 

as hope makes cheerful, 195 

Example, the minister's, and its effect, .... 145-147 

Faith makes strong to suffer ; examples, • • • 237-240 

to serve; examples, .... 245,246 

Father, the drunken, and the child's question, • • 166-169 

Frank, Honest, the story of, 275 

Guidance in Jesus, 58 

Hand, the, temptations for, 277 

right, saved by prayer, 227 

" Happy Dick," cheerful by hope, 200-202 

Harp in heaven, the hope of making cheerful, . . 196, 197 
Hale, Chief Justice, his opinion of the influence of intem- 
perance, 131 

Honesty, true, what means, 262, 263 

Hastings, Warren, industrious by hope, .... 186,187 

Hope makes us industrious, 182 

compared to helmet and anchor, . • • • • 188, 189 

Intemperance, the statistics of, 132, 133 

Jack Coldwater, and his experience, • • • • • 134-137 

Jewels, God's people called, • • 9 

of what made, ........ 10 

used as ornaments, ....... 11 

Bible, what they are, ...... 11 

how to tell what they are, • • • • 236 

Christians like, 11 

very beautiful, 12 






INDEX, 319 

Page 

Jewels, very valuable, • . 16 

precious, the soul a, . • . • . • . 25, 26 
examples of the value of, • • • • • 17 

hard to polish, 26 

how are polished, ■ 27 

why are polished, ........ 36 

specks on, what are they, ...... 39 

Jerome, of Prague, courageous by hope, 193 

Jim's temptation, 278, 279 

Job, one of God's diamonds, ....... 75 

Job's power to bear trials, ....... 76 

Koh-i-noor, the story of the, ....... 23-25 

Knox, John, how was protected, 55, 56 

Ladies, prevalence of intemperance among, . . . 142,143 

Lapidaries, what are, 27 

Luther, Martin, kept from harm by the Bible ruby, • . 115 

Malcolm, Howie, treading in his father's footsteps, . , 59, 60 
Mechanic, the intemperate, saved by the fear of God, . 164, 165 
Miner, the Cornwall, made courageous by hope, . • 192-194 

burnt, how bore his trials, 77, 78 

Miser, a, an example of, 88, 89 

Missionary, a, in India, kept from harm by the Bible ruby, 116-118 

Miser, the Russian, 90 

Morton's, Abel, temptation, 280-283 

Morgan's, Gaspar, victory over sin, 296-300 

Niagara, going over the falls of, intemperance worse than, 137, 138 
Norton, Edward, how polished his jewel, . . • . 29, 30 

Opal, the, its many colored beauty, ...... 207 

Opal3, fine specimens of, 208, 209 

Opal, the, represents prayer, 209 

Orleans, the Duke of, the sad death of, .... 154, 155 

Pearl, the, its beauty, shape, and color, 43 

opinions of its origin, ...... 43 

mother of, how used, 44 

Pearls, attempt to manufacture, 44 

Pearl oysters, where found, 45 

Pearls, the price of, 45 

Pearl, the largest in the world, 45 

Cleopatra and her, ....... 46 

Pearls, hard to get, 48-50 

Pearl, the, of great price, why Jesus is called, ... 47 

how hard to get, . • . .51,52 
its many uses, . . . . 53, 54 

Prayer, brings blessings, 224-226 

help in, 216 

protection in, examples of, 210-214 

saving from sin, 230,231 

Physician, the, and one glass of wine, .... 156,157 



320 INDEX. 

Pago 

Protection in Jesus, 55 

Polishing God's jewels, how we may help in, . . . . 89,40 

Ruby, the, named from its color, 102 

denotes love, 102 

supposed to cure sorrow, 103 

Bible, examples of its power to cure sorrow, 103-108 

said to shine in the dark, 108 

Bible, examples of its power to shine in the 

dark, 109-112 

supposed to keep from harm, 113 

of Charlemagne, 114 

Bible, how it keeps from harm, .... 115 

Sapphire, the tables of the law composed of, 235 

a, the jewel in a bishop's ring, 236 

the, represents faith, 236 

like faith because it makes us strong, . . 237 

Satan's temptations, 301-303 

Satan, a widow's victory over, 303-307 

a little girl's victory over, 308-312 

Shillings, the five lost, recovered by prayer, . . . 220-222 

Soldier, the, finding his child, . 61-63 

Schuyler, General, how protected, . . . . . . 56, 57 

Superintendent, snaking his finger, and its effect, • . 80, 81 

"Star, the, of the South," 21 

the story of, 22 

Tempting others to drink, the evil of, ... . 141, 142 
Temptations for the eye, honesty a safeguard against, • 264 

Testament, a, left in a shop and its result, .... 82 

Thompson's, Harold, victory over sin, 292-295 

Tongue, the, temptations for, 274 

Topaz, the, its color and beauty, 261 

story of Maximilian and 261 

represents honesty, 262 

Transfiguration, the, an example of the beauty Christians 

are to have, . . . . . • 14, 15 
Trials, God's files for polishing his jewels, .... 37 

Trouble, prayer saving from, 228, 229 

Ulysses and the Sirens, 270-272 

Victoria, Queen, and the temperance nobleman, . . 160, 161 

Welshman, the, and his goat, 140 

Willie's jewel, and how he polished it, 31- 35 

Whiskey, what is bringing, 131 

the way to the poor-house, ..... 132 

" Wings some day," influence of hope of, .... 198,199 

Wreck at sea, the woman singing on the, . . . 242 244 

, Words bad, how they stick, 270 

Zachary, the Indian, and the governor's son, . . . 158, 159 



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